E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSDES MOINES, Iowa – With only 20 days until the Iowa caucuses, four GOP candidates made their pitch to social conservatives tonight at the premiere of an anti-abortion documentary narrated by the former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum addressed the 1200 person crowd before the house lights dimmed for the “The Gift of Life” premiere.
“I do want you to take note,” Huckabee told the crowd. “There were four candidates who cleared their schedules, and made this a priority event.”
Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucus, has not yet endorsed a candidate – but he took his seat inside the Hoyt Sherman Place theater with the film’s executive director and the race’s current front-runner: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing in Iowa polls, won the biggest applause from the crowd tonight – and aimed his remarks at his competitors.
“I have some problems with some of the folks who running for office these days when they say, ‘I believe life begins at conception.’ That’s like, I say, ‘I believe the sun rises.’” Santorum said, to laughs.
“Why would you say you believe something that’s a fact?” Santorum added. It seemed to be a reference, at least in part, to Gingrich, who spoke minutes earlier in favor of a congressional bill that would define personhood as beginning at conception – though Santorum said later tonight he was talking about a number of his opponents. "I know that there have been several candidates for president who have stated they believe life begins at conception – and as I said, it’s not a belief, its a fact," Santorum told NBC News.
During her remarks, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann attacked the Obama administration for considering – before reversing course – making the “Plan B” morning-after pill available on pharmacy shelves, “where little girls could find it next to bubble gum and next to M&M’s."
"President Obama is so tied up in his reelection that even he knew that was one step too far,” Bachmann said. Governor Rick Perry touted his record defunding Planned Parenthood in Texas, where he said 12 clinics have closed as a result. He called the new film a tactic in the fight against abortion, saying, “imagine the difference you can make not in just one life, but in two.”
Attacks on Gingrich awaited people after the movie premiere. A group billed as "Iowans for Life" paid for fliers on cars that read, "The bottom line: Newt Gingrich is a pro-life fraud."
But as Huckabee pointed out during his short remarks inside the theater: “I think it is significant that all four of the candidates who are present tonight have endorsed life. And that ought to be very important.”
Leave a Comment:
WE believe in small government,so small in fact that it can sneak into your womb and bedroom....We believe in freedom,freedom to follow what our church says is okay.....
On a side note I think that abortion is wrong but as a Liberal I do not believe I can tell anyone else what to do with their very own body.....I have always let women know that I have sex with that I beleive abortion is murder when it comes to my baby but if they do not agree with me I don't have sex with them...But I can not force my beliefs on another person that I have nothing to do with....Women will have abortions anyway I would hope that my daughter is able to have one in a doctors office not in the alley...
And when it comes to planned parenthood how can you be against them and abortions since they prevent women from getting pregnant in the first place....The GOP's ideology is one big oxymoron for morons....And it is funny how they accuse one another of flip flopping when that is what they all do it's called pandering to the base...When democrats do it it is because the facts about a situation have become understood better but you see the GOP doesn't " Believe" in facts they pander to fantasy like tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to the poor or that NOAh fit every anomal on earth in a boat....HAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHA.....
The point is not what the woman is doing with her own body! The point is what you are doing to an unborn child, another human being. We spend large amounts of money and other resources to protect children after they are born but before birth they are fair game!!??
TES - that's always been the crux of the issue. In short, when does human life begin is the central question.
If, as Santorum would argue, it's a fact that happens at conception, then abortion is murder and thus already criminal (whether the murder laws in these cases are enforced or not).
If it's sometime after conception, then up to that point abortion is a choice that one ought to have regarding her own body.
The problem is no one is really sure, despite Santorum's podium pounding.
Tes you jumped right into the proverbial " pile " an un-born child is not a seperate " Human being" it is in fact a part of the mother until the umbilical cord is cut period.....You are so dense,didn't you read my post ? I am against abortion...I am also against crappy pop-country music like Kenny Chesney but I do not believe the government has a right to legislate it....There is the difference in a nutshell between Democrats and the so called Freedom loving right-wing....We believe in true freedom you believe in some twisted version of freedom where you can tell people what music to listen to,what video games we can play,what we can put in our bodies,what holidays we can and cannot celebrate ( The so-called war on Christmas ) what relegions are acceptable,if people can use birth control, if people are allowed to join labor unions, if people are allowed to marry the consenting adult of their choice( not to long ago you couldn't even marry a black woman let alone same sex marriage ) but it's okay in your book to marry your cousin ( see laws in many states including MD )
You see the Democratic party is willing to talk about things like gun-control but that is a dirty word to you righties because you are juvenile and aren't willing to debate or compromise anymore...that is why your party is dying you see the Democrats have candidates on both sides of all the issues and are willing to debate and compromise in order to please their constituency( you know the people who voted for them) but republicans will not debate or talk about issues they all stand for the same thing and won't compromise or represent the 49% of voters that didn't support them....And that is why nothing can get done in this government as of late plus the fact that they have made it their sole numero uno policy to make the black man fail and not accomplish anything to hell with the rest of us....They will say the sky is green if Obama says it is blue.
Many of the things you attribute to Republicans are actually beliefs held by some Democrats and not all Republicans! What an idiot!!
You know, TES, when people are forced to the last resort of name-calling, it usually means their arguments had no validity in the first place. Fail.
Sailcat So you do not agree with my first statement!? Generalities are made by those who are ignorant! And the race card is again used by someone who has no other arguement.
I rest my case.
You have no case!!
The minute a religious cult or its leaders get involved ...people's right's get violated or young boys get molested !
These cults have NO PLACE IN GOVERNMENT !
Well said. These political hucksters are playing to the emotions of the electorate but they are bringing nothing new to the table with respect to real issues. I believe the people of Iowa will be too smart to believe these frauds are genuine presidential material and they will send them packing when the time comes.
interesting.... all religion are just cults. Since when did the constitution make this possible?
I have yet to see any state sponsered religious affiliations within our government. Even kennedy probably didn't do what the pope said
Americon- Rick Perry prayed for rain instead of doing something about it...There is one would you like another ?
Perry also recently claimed to have introduced creationism into Texas schools. If he is right...and when is Perry ever right?...it would be in violation of Federal law.
Ameriquan,
The constant attempts to pass "life at conception" laws all over this country are attempts to force "state sponsored religious affliations (duh, christian)" down our throats. (c)hristians think (believe, hope?) life begins at conception so the rest of us should be forced by law to live with their belief.
Kennedy may not have done what the pope said but you can bet your boots that Romney will do what the LDS elders say to do. Mormonism is a business masquerading as a religion. All other religions ARE cults.
"The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre." (Wikipedia). Like eating transconfigured bread and wine (catholics) playing with snakes (baptists) Magic undies (mormons are a cult AND a business) holy cows (hindu) strange headgear (jews and muslims) praying in tongues (evangelical christians) the list goes no and on not to mention the sociopathic behavior of all of these cults.