‘My Child Was Not Stillborn!’: Rick Santorum Gets Heated With Bob Schieffer During Prenatal Testing Discussion

My wife had several prenatal tests though we agreed before hand that we would not abort no matter what. We had been trying for years to have a child. It's a good thing our insurance covered it too... we could not have afforded the testing otherwise. It turned out my son had a defect that needed immediate surgery. We would not have been able to afford the surgery either [over $90K] Not only were the doctors able to prepare for the surgery, but my wife [who was very nervous due to several prior miscarriages] and I were able to educate ourselves about my son's condition and prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally to make good decisions for our son. Abortion is NOT the only reason for prenatal tests... it's not even the main reason. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to further an agenda. By the way, that same son is now 23. He was repeatedly denied healthcare insurance [and we were banned from adding him to our insurance] until "Obamacare" allowed him to buy it himself. Now he pays for the insurance to cover his medical care... just like every other responsible citizen.

Something really needs to be cleared up here that no one talks about.....there is this fear of government making your medical decisions going around. Requiring that your insurance company offer certain tests and/or care is not forcing anyone to exercise there rights and have anything specific done. It's telling insurance companies they have to cover things. Back to the fear of government making your decisions....as it stands and for as long as I've had healthcare insurance....insurance companies decide your care on a daily basis. So it's ok for a business to make your healthcare decisions, but no ok for the government to force minimum requirements on what they should cover for all buyers of insurance? I don't get that stupid argument. The other part of this is what is wrong with having certain things covered by insurance? No one is forcing anyone to accept birth control, prenatal tests, viagra, or anything. But if you "choose" to these things should be covered. What is so wrong with having a choice? The other option is letting insurance companies to dictate your care by your doctor or hospital. Many times a doctor can recommend a test to find out what is wrong with you, but an insurance company can flat out deny that request even if it's totally legit. then you fight the insurance company for a few months to find out YES you can have that test and it's covered...but now it's too late.....this kind of thing happens all of the time. #$%$

Prenatal testing allows parents to prepare for the arrival of a special needs child and gives them time to mourn the "loss" of the "perfect" baby they were expecting. Not every woman pregnant with a special needs baby has an abortion.

And for those who choose not to abort, they have valuable time to prepare for the coming special needs child.

Looks like we're not going to hear anything about jobs and that's sad because lack of work is what is really killing America.

Uh.... The economy???? Anybody????

Often times families cannot make informed decisions and informed consent without some type of medical tests ..... besides that, what gives this individual the right to impose himself, his religious beliefs, or the government into the private, personal, medical decisions of individuals and their families .... More importantly, I want to know how any of this helps the economy, reduce the national debt, increase employment, and/or reduce the size of government and keep them out of our private family lives and matters?

"People have the right to do it but to have the government force people to provide it free just to me has -- is a bit loaded," he said.

Force "people" to provide it? Doesn't he mean "insurance companies?"

The fact is that Santorum and his wife, under federal law, had the right to make those decisions for their pregnancy. Once a door is opened to limit those decision making rights, to limit the science and medicine that enables conscious and informed decision making, then the door is completely open to limit any other aspect of those rights. Take away the right for a woman/couple to chose an abortion and you make it possible to take away the right for that woman/couple to chose to have a child. What is right for his family is not the defining force for family rights.

the prenatal testing allowed santorum to be informed, and make his own decision based on knowledge. to deny that to others is hypocrisy.

Pregnant women in the USA expect to have prenatal testing done, and they expect their insurance to cover it. Period. All OBs recommend this testing, and NOT for the purpose to encourage abortion!! These docs are in the baby business, NOT the abortion business! If doctors are recommending this testing, then insurance should cover it. PERIOD.

Pre-natal testing will also help those babies with medical conditions that can be alleveated either before or just after birth. Physicians and patients find it useful to diagnose high-risk pregnancies early so that delivery can be scheduled in a tertiary care hospital where the baby can receive appropriate care. Rick Santorum choses only the side of pre-natal testing that suits his own personal campaign agenda.

This guy cares too much about our sex lives to be president.

He cares alot more about the deformed and genetically weak babies that don't need to be born and take up ungodly amounts of our medical dollars, over giving people adequate medical insurance to treat conditions that can be cured. To me his philosophy is one of convenient ignoring of the plight of the suffering, because he has obvious genetic issues in his own family, mental retardation seems to run in the family.

Those tests are NOT "mandated" and you can refuse to have them. Same for the "mandatory" DNA testing that is done on newborns. You can decline all of it. If the hospital pushes, tell them your pediatrician will be doing it at the first well-child visit.

So force a sonogram before an abortion, but prenatal testing isn't important?

That's the whole point...Santorum and his family had the RIGHT to decide to take on the responsibility of a child with a disability, and I commend him on having the CHOICE to take that on...I personally would not want to do that...and currently that is my RIGHT. I am scared of people like this who assume that their choice is the only one that is right for everyone and that everyone should behave they way they do.

Being born in the 50's, I had friends that traveled long distances and spent lots of money to get an abortion. The fight over abortion is not about if they will occur, but if they will be safe. The image pro-lifers offer of pro-choice folks is just not true. No one, even those who perform them, get joy from doing it.

Why do guys like Santorum have such a vendetta against women? Did their mother's beat them every day or something?

When you purchase an insurance policy, it is not an a la carte menu. Prenatal testing should be a covered service to prospective parents. They have the right to know what, if any, disabilities or deformities their child may have. They might not have the psychological or financial strength to deal with a child with a multitude of health problems or physical deformities.

It is easy for Mr. Santorum, a millionaire with fantastic health insurance, to preach to the masses that they should not only carry to term, but raise a child with physical or mental disabilities as well as a multitude of other health problems. This could break many families financially as well as mentally. I speak as someone who has dealt with this problem on a personal level.