The 7 Worst Things Rick Santorum Has Said About Women

In an interview with CNN’s John King, Santorum said that he was skeptical about increasing military roles for women because he felt that emotions could create “compromising situations in combat.”

“I do have concerns about women in front-line combat, I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission, because of other types of emotions that are involved,” he said.

Santorum later attempted to clear up his statement by saying that he was talking more about men being put in compromising states of emotions seeing women in harm’s way.

“The issue is — and certainly one that has been talked about for a long, long time — is how men would react to seeing women in harm’s way, or potentially being injured or in a vulnerable position, and not being concerned about accomplishing the mission,” he said.

Santorum told the Ohio Christian Alliance that the free prenatal testing guaranteed in President Obama’s healthcare law actually promote abortions.

“One of the things that you don’t know about ObamaCare in one of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing,” Santorum said on MSNBC. “Why? Because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and, therefore, less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”

It should be noted that most medical experts say that prenatal testing is better for both patients and doctors as it helps prepare for potential complications.

Source: MSNBC

Santorum has also famously taken the position against abortion regardless of circumstance. While even many conservatives argue that abortions can be permitted in the case of rape, Santorum disagrees.On CNN, Santorum explained that women in such circumstances should “make the best out of a bad situation.”"Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn’t, it will always be her child, and she will always know that,” he said.

 

Source: The Huffington Post

Santorum has remained staunchly against contraception during the race, though he’s had conflicting reasons behind his opposition. He said during the CNN Arizona debate that contraception leads to more abortions but recently backed off that track and pushed more on the religious liberty track.He recently told Fox News that according to his faith he believed contraception to be a “moral grievous wrong.”"We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, somehow, now you’re out of the mainstream, and that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can’t have personal held beliefs. But that’s not the issue — the issue is whether the government can force you to do things that are against your conscience, and that’s what we’ve been talking about on the road. We haven’t been talking about my own personal beliefs,” he added.

Source: Huffington Post

Ok, so this wasn’t technically Santorum, but when big-time supporter Foster Friess said that back in his day contraception was an aspirin between the knees, many people were upset.Santorum would later disavow the comments but that didn’t stop him from accepting Friess’ checks.

Source: Business Insider

While campaigning during his first Senate race, told voters in Eerie, Pa. that there is a new source “breeding more criminals”: the single mother.

During this entire campaign, Santorum continually hammered single mothers and welfare. He would also say:

“Open up the current periodicals—study after study, article after article, children having children is destroying the fabric of our country. If you want to close your eyes to it, if you don’t care about it, if you don’t want to solve it, if you want to continue the system, to let people stay and spiral—go ahead. Not with me.”

Santorum also proposed requiring unwed mothers to disclose the names of the child’s father before being allowed to receive welfare.

Source: Mother Jones

Santorum also took heat for a passage in his book “It Takes a Family” criticized “radical feminists.”

“Sadly the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960s has taken root,” the passage reads. “The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.”

Santorum went on ABC and said that his wife actually wrote that section of the book after she felt that she was being looked down on for quitting her job to raise her children.

Source: The New York Times

Posted in Business Insider