The Santorums, according to an account written by the senator for today's Commentary Page in The Inquirer, struggled mightily to avoid the abortion option.
Ultimately, they did not have to make a decision; nature made it for them. Karen went into premature labor from an infection, delivering a boy who had a fatal abnormality. The child died two hours later.
In an interview, the Santorums said they would have authorized an abortion had there been no other choice.
``If that had to be the call, we would have induced labor if we had to,'' the senator said as he sat in his Washington office. ``I consider it a blessing that we didn't have to make that decision.''
An abortion under the circumstances described in this case would not have been a partial-birth abortion - known to physicians as ``intact dilation and extraction'' - nor would it have conflicted with the senator's position.
Santorum opposes abortion ``except in the cases of rape, incest or [to save] the life of the mother.'' He believes Roe v. Wade should be reversed so that states could regulate and restrict abortion, and opposes public funding of abortion.
In the interview, the senator said that his wife's experience reinforced rather than altered his views about abortion.
``I'm not suggesting that abortion is never medically called for to save the life of the mother,'' he said. ``But my son's fetal abnormality was never a threat to Karen. You don't abandon him because there's something wrong with him.''
He said he was struck by the ``incredible irony'' that this experience should have happened to him - a public official with a highly visible position on one of the thorniest issues of the last 30 years.
