By Jos Truitt • @jostruitt • 13 years ago

Santorum: abortion providers should be “criminally charged”

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum went on Meet the Press Sunday to make sure everyone knows what a hard line anti-choice asshole he is.

Santorum thinks abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape and incest. I’m not fan of the rape and incest exception – of course I think abortion should be legal in all cases, and that horrible circumstances surrounding a pregnancy don’t make it more OK. But forcing rape and incest survivors to carry a pregnancy to term is a line plenty on Santorum’s side aren’t even willing to cross.

Santorum went on to say that doctors who perform abortions should be “criminally charged.” Oh yay, demonizing providers even more, that’s exactly what we need in an environment where unstable extremists are inspired to violence. Santorum, in his great benevolence, does not call for the criminalization of pregnant folks seeking abortion. He just wants to reduce them to choiceless baby incubators is all.

Check out the video of Santorum’s super classy statement from Crooks and Liars. This election’s gonna be a blast:

Transcript after the jump.

David Gregory: One more question on abortion, an issue you care deeply about. I want to be clear on this: do you believe there should be legal exceptions for rape and incest when it comes to abortion?

Rick Santorum: I believe that life begins at conception and that that life should be guaranteed under the Constitution. That is a person.

Gregory: So even in the case of rape or incest? That would be taking a life?

Santorum: That would be taking a life. I believe that any doctor who performs an abortion, I would advocate that any doctor who performs an abortion should be criminally charged for doing so. I have never supported criminalization of abortion for mothers, but I do for people who perform them.

I believe that life is sacred. It’s one of those things in the Declaration of Independence. We are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. The first is life and I believe that that life should be protected at the moment it is a human life. And at conception, it is biologically human and it’s alive and it’s a human life and should be a person under the Constitution.

Boston, MA

Jos Truitt is Executive Director of Development at Feministing. She joined the team in July 2009, became an Editor in August 2011, and Executive Director in September 2013. She writes about a range of topics including transgender issues, abortion access, and media representation. Jos first got involved with organizing when she led a walk out against the Iraq war at her high school, the Boston Arts Academy. She was introduced to the reproductive justice movement while at Hampshire College, where she organized the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program’s annual reproductive justice conference. She has worked on the National Abortion Federation’s hotline, was a Field Organizer at Choice USA, and has volunteered as a Pro-Choice Clinic Escort. Jos has written for publications including The Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has spoken and trained at numerous national conferences and college campuses about trans issues, reproductive justice, blogging, feminism, and grassroots organizing. Jos completed her MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in Spring 2013. In her "spare time" she likes to bake and work on projects about mermaids.

Jos Truitt is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Development.

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