Santorum blames abortion for Social Security woes

Former Pennsylvania senator says Social Security is "in big trouble" because of "abortion culture"

Published March 29, 2011 6:45PM (EDT)

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP)
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP)

Amanda Marcotte wrote over the weekend about a new wave anti-choice legislation in the states and at the federal level.

And, yes, even in this era of the "fiscally-focused" Tea Party, it looks like abortion is going to be a significant issue in the Republican presidential primary. The latest example: On WEZS radio in New Hampshire today, a caller asked Rick Santorum what he thought about how abortion was causing problems in the social security system.

In response, the former senator (and father of seven) blamed "the abortion culture in this country" for hurting social security.

Said Santorum (audio here starting around the 50:30 mark):

"The social security system in my opinion is a flawed design, period. But, having said that, the design would work a lot better if we had stable demographic trends. ... The reason social security is in big trouble is we don't have enough workers to support the retirees. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion."

As Steve Kornacki wrote the other day, this sort of rhetoric will play quite well in the key early state of Iowa, where there is an influential social conservative base.


By Justin Elliott

Justin Elliott is a reporter for ProPublica. You can follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin

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