# Santorum's wife had an abortion?!? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 4, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438 "2012-01-04T23:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/81 "2012-01-06T21:25:56Z")
Sorry, this is the fourth time that somebody has made that mistake in this thread, and it was getting annoying. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I don’t think it’s so clear- this is from the link in the post you object to: > > “SANTORUM: When I was leading the charge on partial birth abortion, several members came forward and said, “Why don’t we just ban all abortions?” Tom Daschle was one of them, if you remember. And Susan Collins, and others. They wanted a health exception, which of course is a phony exception which would make the ban ineffective.” > > That sounds to me like he’s talking about _all_ abortions- responding to the members’ questions. No. The others said “Why don’t we change your partial birth abortion ban to do X (cover all abortions) and Y (have a health exception)?” And his response was that Y would undermine the whole thing. He didn’t say anything one way or the other about X. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/82 "2012-01-06T21:45:46Z")
I’m a bit baffled by the people who are still attempting to describe this as “an abortion”. I checked with a friend of mine from Ireland where abortion is illegal and she confirmed that this wouldn’t have been considered illegal. I’m not a fan of Santorum but it seems to me that many are letting their animosity towards Senator man-on-dog to Floyd their judgement. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/83 "2012-01-07T16:39:38Z")
Rick Santorum wanted to ban partial birth abortion. Near as I can tell, he and others object to it because they consider it a gruesome and barbaric medical procedure. I certainly agree that it’s gruesome, but the idea of banning a legit medical procedure for reasons unrelated to the health of the patient never made sense to me. So apparently he was fine with medical exceptions for abortion, just so long as the abortion procedure didn’t involve dismemberment of the fetus. Anyway, here’s a [Philly Inquirer](http://articles.philly.com/1997-05-04/news/25562508_1_fetal-abnormality-controversial-late-term-abortion-procedure-intact-dilation-and-extraction) article from 1997 about what happened. > [@](#): > > `I'm not suggesting that abortion is never medically called for to save the life of the mother,'' he said. `But my son’s fetal abnormality was never a threat to Karen. You don’t abandon him because there’s something wrong with him.‘’ Never a threat? Yeah, I’m not buying that, Rick. > [@](#): > > Karen was in her 19th week of pregnancy. Husband and wife were in a suburban Virginia office for a routine sonogram when a radiologist told them that the fetus Karen was carrying had a fatal defect and was going to die. > > After consulting with specialists, who offered several options including abortion, the Santorums decided on long-shot intrauterine surgery to correct an obstruction of the urinary tract called posterior urethral valve syndrome. > > A few days later, rare ``bladder shunt’’ surgery was performed at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. The incision in the womb carried a high risk of infection. > > Two days later, at home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Verona, Karen Santorum became feverish. Her Philadelphia doctors instructed her to hurry to Pittsburgh’s Magee-Women’s Hospital, which has a unit specializing in high-risk pregnancies. > > After examining Karen, who was nearly incoherent with a 105-degree fever, a doctor at Magee led Santorum into the hallway outside her room and said that she had an intrauterine infection and some type of medical intervention was necessary. Unless the source of the infection, the fetus, was removed from Karen’s body, she would likely die. > > At minimum, the doctor said, Karen had to be given antibiotics intravenously or she might go into septic shock and die. > > The Santorums were at a crossroads. > > Once they agreed to use antibiotics, they believed they were committing to delivery of the fetus, which they knew would most likely not survive outside the womb. > > `The doctors said they were talking about a matter of hours or a day or two before risking sepsis and both of them might die,'' Santorum said. `Obviously, if it was a choice of whether both Karen and the child are going to die or just the child is going to die, I mean it’s a pretty easy call.‘’ > > Shivering under heated blankets in Magee’s labor and delivery unit as her body tried to reject the source of the infection, Karen felt cramping from early labor. > > Santorum agreed to start his wife on intravenous antibiotics ``to buy her some time,‘’ he said. > > The antibiotics brought Karen’s fever down. The doctor suggested a drug to accelerate her labor. > > `The cramps were labor, and she was going to get into more active labor,'' Santorum said. `Karen said, `We’re not inducing labor, that’s an abortion. No way. That isn’t going to happen. I don’t care what happens.’ ‘’ > > As her fever subsided, Karen - a former neonatal intensive-care nurse - asked for something to stop the labor. Her doctors refused, Santorum recalled, citingmalpractice concerns. > > Santorum said her labor proceeded without having to induce an abortion. > > Karen, a soft-spoken red-haired 37-year-old, said that ``ultimately’’ she would have agreed to intervention for the sake of her other children. Look, if Karen Santorum wanted to risk infection on a long-shot medical procedure to try and save her pregnancy, that’s her business. But I think it was a reckless decision, given that she had 3 young children, and I don’t really believe we should expect and demand women to make heroic efforts to save their pregnancy when their health is threatened. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/84 "2012-01-07T18:15:24Z")
I’m no fan of Santorum, but dragging this kind of personal tragedy into the debate just seems tasteless. Can’t we go back to just making up new definitions for his name? ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/85 "2012-01-07T20:13:33Z")
If Santorum gets the GOP nomination, [John Sanchez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sanchez) would be the perfect running mate. I hear he’s dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/86 "2012-01-07T23:44:45Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > The RCC says no, you don’t get to have an abortion to save the woman’s life, and abortion includes hastening delivery of an unviable fetus. The RCC does not allow you to choose between the woman and the fetus. You have to just sort of leave it to God and if God decides both die, well, you both die. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/87 "2012-01-08T00:38:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Cite? Does this count? > **[Arizona Catholic Hospital Defends Abortion From Bishop’s Letter - LifeNews.com](https://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/16/state-5748/)** > > St. Joseph’s Hospital is defending itself from criticism by a Catholic bishop who says it may see its status as a Catholic institution revoked over a controversial abortion it allowed. Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix plans to declare today whether... Synopsis: St. Joseph’s Hospital is defending itself from criticism by a Catholic bishop who says it may see its status as a Catholic institution revoked over a controversial abortion it allowed. Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix plans to declare today whether St. Joseph’s Hospital is not longer a Catholic one unless its parent organization changes its stance on abortion. The hospital has been facing questions for the better part of a year over a 2009 abortion which the hospital’s ethics committee deemed necessary to save the life of the mother. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438/88 "2012-01-10T13:49:31Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I don’t like the man, but the OP’s argument is disgusting. He was faced with a horrible choice: induce labour today, or induce labour tomorrow or the day after, once his wife was dead. Do you really think that the extra day or two would have saved his child? The point is that these are the kinds of choices people who have abortions are always faced with. A person who courts the anti abortion crowd has an obligation to live up to his principles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/santorums-wife-had-an-abortion/608438.md?page=4)