Rick Santorum

Mr. SANTORUM

Mr. SANTORUM. If the head is inside the mother, you can kill the baby.

Mr. SANTORUM. We are trying to draw a line here.

Mr. SANTORUM. OK. So if the baby's toe is in, you can't kill the baby. How about if the baby's foot is in?

Mr. SANTORUM. But, again, what you are suggesting is if the baby's toe is inside the mother, you can, in fact, kill that baby.

Mr. SANTORUM. I am not going to put words in your mouth----

Mr. SANTORUM. I am asking you again. Can you answer that?

Mr. SANTORUM. I am asking.

Mr. SANTORUM. Maybe you can make it obvious to me. What you are suggesting is if the baby's foot is still inside of the mother, that baby can then still be killed.

Mr. SANTORUM. What we are talking about here with partial birth, as the Senator from California knows, is the baby is in the process of being born----

Mr. SANTORUM. I am asking for you to define for me what that is.

Mr. SANTORUM. Because we are talking about a situation here where the baby is almost born. So I ask the question of the Senator from California, if the baby was born except for the baby's foot, if the baby's foot was inside the mother but the rest of the baby was outside, could that baby be killed?

Mr. SANTORUM. Good. All I am asking you is, once the baby leaves the mother's birth canal and is through the vaginal orifice and is in the hands of the obstetrician, you would agree you cannot then abort the baby?

Mr. SANTORUM. My wife and I did. We do things together in my family.

Mr. SANTORUM. We had six.

Mr. SANTORUM. Say it is in the obstetrician's hands.

Mr. SANTORUM. Let's define that. Let's say the baby is completely separated; in other words, no part of the baby is inside the mother.

Mr. SANTORUM. All the Senator has to do is give me a straight answer.

Mr. SANTORUM. So you would accept the fact that once the baby is separated from the mother, that baby cannot be killed?

Mr. SANTORUM. Once the baby is born, is completely separated from the mother, you will support that that baby has, in fact, the right to life and cannot be killed? You accept that; right?

Mr. SANTORUM. I say to the Senator from California, I am not twisting anything. I am simply asking a very straightforward question. There is no hidden question here. The question is----

Mr. SANTORUM. I understand that.

Mr. SANTORUM. Are you suggesting Roe v. Wade covered the issue of a baby in the process of being born?

Mr. SANTORUM. What I am trying to do is get an answer from the Senator from California as to where you would draw the line because that really is the important part of this debate.

Mr. SANTORUM. If I may reclaim the time?

Mr. SANTORUM. Let me be clear, then. Let's try to be clear.