Leftish

Santorum In '95: 'I Was Basically Pro-Choice All My Life, Until I Ran For Congress'

WASHINGTON — Prior to entering public office, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was a self-admitted pro-choice Republican unwilling to dabble in the cultural conservative politics that now defines his presidential campaign, a review of old campaign documents and interviews shows.

This past week, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-GOP primary frontrunner made a number of eyebrow raising statements meant to demonstrate an uncompromising posture on social issues. He’s questioned President Obama’s theology, argued that prenatal testing is a form of eugenics, and stated his opposition for contraception funding.

His campaign has insisted that these are side issues, but when pressed during an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday morning, Santorum’s top spokesman Hogan Gidley exulted in his boss’ consistency on such topics.

“I mean, that’s who he is,” Gidley said. “He doesn’t have to tack to the right on social issues like Mitt Romney because he actually firmly believes those things.”

But Santorum didn’t always have such conviction on social policy. In his first run for office in 1990, his campaign put out an issue statement on abortion that, by today’s standards, would put him among the moderates of the GOP. Abortion, he wrote, requires “a sensitivity to the genuine concerns of both sides.” While “government must be on the side of human life” he recognized that ” it is very difficult to criminalize any activity once a large portion of society comes to see it as a ‘right.’”