Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum defended U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock on Wednesday night over controversial comments the Indiana Republican made about abortion and rape, arguing that one would have to "contort words beyond meaning" to read his statement as saying "rape was a gift from God."
During a debate Tuesday night, Mourdock said "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something God intended to happen."
And on Wednesday, Santorum insisted that Mourdock's words were being twisted by Democrats, who immediately pounced on the comments.
"What the Senate candidate said is that the child is a gift from God and whether it's conceived by rape or not, it's still the gift of human life is a gift from God, and that's what he said," Santorum told CNN. "He didn't say rape was a gift from God. You'd have to contort words beyond meaning to get that understanding of it. "
Santorum went on to accuse the media of playing " 'gotcha' politics."
"I don't think anyone's who watched that — I watched it — could think anything other than the fact that he was talking about the baby in the womb as something that is precious and is a gift through the horrible circumstances of that gift being created, yes, but it's still that life needs to be protected," Santorum continued.
The Pennsylvania Republican went on to say if one of his daughters had been impregnated during rape, he would help her to understand "that that child in the womb is a human life and it was a horrible thing to be created, but it's still a human life and my children all know as I do that that is — that is a human being that deserves our love and support and protection."
"That child didn't do anything wrong," Santorum said. "That baby didn't do anything illegal."
Santorum went on to say that the "sad part" was that in the instance of a rape resulting in pregnancy, the rapist "cannot be executed" but that the Supreme Court "says you can execute the child, who's the innocent victim of the rape."
"That is the society that has its morals upside down," Santorum said.
In a press conference Wednesday, Mourdock also accused Democrats of twisting the meaning of his comments.
"I would be less than faithful to my faith if I said anything other than 'Life is precious.' I think it is a gift from God. I don't think God would ever want anyone harmed, sexually abused or raped. I think it's wrong when someone wants to take what I said and twist it," Mourdock said.
But the Obama campaign aggressively criticized Mourdock's comments throughout the day Wednesday, and sent an email to female supporters in the evening linking Mourdock to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
"Not surprisingly, Romney is still standing by his endorsement and is refusing to ask that [an ad featuring Mourdock and Romney] be pulled down," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in the email. "It's a grim reminder of something he's trying desperately to hide in the final weeks of this election: Romney has campaigned as a severe conservative, supports severely conservative candidates and would be a severely conservative president — especially on issues important to women."
The Romney campaign on Wednesday said that the presidential nominee disagreed with Mourdock's comments, but would not ask the Senate candidate to take down an ad featuring Romney.
