By DEXTER DUGGAN
Possible Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina pointed out during a talk in Washington, D.C., that abortion has far-reaching consequences for families — instead of being the private, individual decision that champions of permissive abortion claim.
People soon would be gathering in the nation’s capital to march for life, Fiorina said on January 20, in recognition that “the life we save may make all the difference in the lives of others.”
Fiorina, the former president of high-tech Hewlett-Packard Co., spoke at a program at the conservative Heritage Foundation co-hosted by the National Review Institute educational organization, titled, “Welcoming every life: Choosing life after an unexpected prenatal diagnosis.”
Her own husband’s mother was told that aborting him was the only choice, and “her doctors feared for her life,” but Fiorina’s future mother-in-law was a woman of “deep faith and great courage” who went ahead with the pregnancy, Fiorina said.
The mother spent almost a year in the hospital after he was born, Fiorina said, but the little boy was the joy of his mother’s life as well as Fiorina’s own life for now more than 30 years.
How different her life would have been without her husband, Fiorina said — an unborn child who almost didn’t have a chance.
Republican Fiorina unsuccessfully ran for a California U.S. Senate seat in 2010 against radical pro-abortion Democrat incumbent Barbara Boxer. Fiorina was criticized by pro-lifers then for allowing for rape and incest exceptions for abortion as well as federal funding for research on existing embryos who would have been destroyed otherwise.
Although not explaining during her Heritage talk whether she favored narrower limits for abortion now, Fiorina recalled that Boxer had “famously declared” life doesn’t begin until the newborn infant goes home from the hospital.
That was during an exchange on the Senate floor in 1999 with pro-life Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.), who was questioning Boxer about partial-birth abortion, which is performed as the baby is extracted from the mother.
Boxer recently announced she won’t run for another Senate term in 2016.
Fiorina said that after she won the GOP Senate primary in 2010, a donor visited with her and urged that she modify her “extreme positions,” such as against abortion.
In the Heritage talk, Fiorina directly confronted the position of the other side on the abortion issue, saying the Democrat Party platform and liberal talking points are “extreme, hypocritical.”
Rather than acknowledge the preponderance of scientific evidence and public opinion, some abortion advocates continue with their stand for abortion at any time in pregnancy for any reason, she said.
“[L]iberals will not give an inch” on their extremism, she said, speculating that they fear to contemplate when life begins. She recalled Barack Obama’s comment during the 2008 presidential election campaign that when life begins is a question above his pay grade.
While protecting these infants’ lives, even up to the time of birth, draws only the scorn and mockery of liberals, Fiorina pointed out that the liberals are fierce to protect the lives of fish and bugs.
As a Californian, she said, she has seen people’s lives and livelihoods destroyed in order to protect fish, frogs, and flies — a reference to the state’s radical environmentalist movement’s alliance with the Democrat Party.
Science “is helping us to make our case every day” for the pro-life movement, she said, recalling that prenatal surgery has been performed for years, aiding babies in the womb — “sounds like a life to me.”
When she was eight years of age, she said, she received a plaque saying, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you make of it is your gift to God.”
Sometimes, she said, “the times of greatest challenge can also bring the greatest blessing.”
After she finished high school, Fiorina said, she was a volunteer at a school for children with special needs.
Although their parents even may have struggled with material needs, “I saw the joy in their face” when the parents picked up their children at the end of the day and heard what the day’s “small triumph” was.
After she made a continued effort to teach an African-American youngster the concept and pronunciation of “eye” and “ear,” he had a “look of absolute joy and triumph” when he mastered them, she said.
Fiorina said pro-lifers gather in Washington at this time of year because they know that women and unborn children deserve their empathy and support.
By having chosen to give her unequivocating talk at the high-profile Heritage Foundation just before the annual March for Life, Fiorina appeared to want to link herself with the pro-life side.
This was different from Republican congressional leadership shortly thereafter, when it dropped the long-anticipated vote on the 20-week abortion bill in the U.S. House on January 22.
In a November news release announcing that Fiorina is to be one of the speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference in late February in Washington, she said:
“The Left has wasted America’s time with its so-called war on women for long enough. Conservatives will focus on lifting up all Americans, revitalizing the innovation and growth engines of our economy and providing opportunities for every American.”
After the January 20 talk, LifeSiteNews reported that Fiorina told it that if she ever were to run in a presidential campaign, she would not shun the issue of abortion.
“This is an issue that we should not be afraid of,” LifeSiteNews quoted her, saying she added that abortion at “any time for any reason” is an “incredibly extreme position” that is rejected by many Americans.
After Fiorina spoke at the Heritage/National Review Institute event, a panel discussion followed.
It featured Mark Bradford, president of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation, a research, care, and advocacy organization for people with genetic intellectual disabilities; Dan LaHood, co-founder of St. Joseph’s House, a day care and respite home serving children with multiple disabilities, and Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., president and CEO of Americans United for Life.
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