(Oregon Right to Life) — Pro-life attorney, politician, and two-time presidential candidate Rick Santorum shared insights into faith, family, and his steadfast work to advance a culture of life in a Live Action interview posted to social media Wednesday.
Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2007, later running for president in 2012 and again in 2016, spoke to Live Action’s Sami Parker about how growing in his Catholic faith led him to feel called to speak openly about abortion in his position as an elected representative.
“I was a typical pro-lifer,” Santorum explained. “The typical pro-lifer is someone who votes pro-life and keeps their mouth shut. That’s the safe way to be a pro-lifer. No one’s gonna bother you in the media. No one’s gonna go out and hang you in effigy if you simply vote pro-life.”
“They’re gonna go after you if you actually try to do something to change things,” he said. “If you actually try to move the American public in a different direction. Then, you’re a threat.”
As someone who “spent five years in the House and Senate and never said the word ‘abortion,’” Santorum said he finally felt prompted by God to take action when confronted with a bill to address and explicitly prohibit partial birth abortion in federal law in 1995.
“I ended up managing the bill on the floor of the United States Senate, and from that point on I became the culture warrior that I became,” he said.
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A husband and father of eight, Santorum also spoke candidly about his family, including the deep struggles and pain his family faced.
The Santorums’ seventh child passed away shortly after birth, and Santorum’s wife, Karen, suffered multiple miscarriages. Their eighth child, Bella, was born with Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder. Doctors predicted Bella would soon pass away, but Santorum and his wife refused to give up on her – today, Bella is seventeen years old.
Ultimately, Santorum credited his work to advance the pro-life message in the public sphere to the grace of God.
“God can take faithful efforts to do His will and do amazing things beyond the little thing you were trying to accomplish,” he said.
Addressing pro-life advocates, he encouraged them to step out in faith.
“To people who are pro-life who are either active or thinking about being active… be not afraid,” Santorum said. “You’re fighting for the truth. You’re fighting for Him. And that’s what matters.”
