Bachmann, Santorum use public appearances to talk abortion

Though all of the current Republican presidential hopefuls have touted their pro-life stances in recent months, perhaps none have been as vocal as Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. During an Iowa campaign stop yesterday, Bachmann took a tour of the Informed Choices Medical Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center founded by Pastor Brad Sherman in 2007. Santorum, meanwhile, spoke out against abortion during a brief appearance on Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

“We don’t have to settle when it comes to the defense of life. As a mother of five biological children and foster mother to 23, I have always been a strong and consistent supporter of pro-life issues from conception to natural death. The people who work at Informed Choices are true champions in the pro-life effort,” Bachmann said following her tour of Choices. “They prove every day that we don’t have to settle for the status quo and disastrous consequences of Roe v. Wade.”

Crisis pregnancy centers (or CPCS) are often criticized for falsely advertising that they perform medical services. In reality, most CPCs do little more than counsel women against undergoing abortion procedures. CPCs have in the past been found to distribute medically inaccurate information about abortion to women seeking help.

Speaking with Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Situation Room, former Sen. Santorum said it is his hope that, should abortion be made illegal, there would be criminal penalties for all doctors and nurses involved in such procedures.

“If abortion is against the law … to abort a child and take a human life … then it should have some criminal penalties, of course,” said Santorum. “Laws are in place right now…that if you’re someone who would punch a woman in the stomach who has a child and cause that child to be miscarried, you can be charged with criminal activity. And so we say that you can charge someone with criminal activity and nobody gets offended by that. Why? Because the law protects that child.”

When asked whether the women undergoing abortion procedures should also face criminal charges, Santorum said no: “I see women, in this case, as much more the victim. … It’s penalty enough to go through an abortion and absolutely in no way would I support criminal penalties against the mother.”

Both Bachmann and Santorum took part in National Right to Life’s presidential forum, which took place in Jacksonville in June.