Gingrich: Life Doesn’t Begin at Conception Because That Would ‘Open Up … Very Difficult Questions’
CNSNews
In an interview with ABC News on Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he believes that human life does not begin at conception but at “implantation and successful implantation” because if you say life begins at conception “you’re going to open up an extraordinary range of very difficult questions.”
Gingrich also said that his “friends” who take “ideological positions” that human life does begin at conception “don’t then follow through on the logic of” that postion.
Gingrich’s statement was criticized by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who like Gingrich is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and by commentaries posted on pro-life websites.
Gingrich made his statement in an interview with ABC News’s Jake Tapper in West Des Moines, Iowa.
“Abortion is a big issue here in Iowa among conservative Republican voters and Rick Santorum has said you are inconsistent,” Tapper told Gingrich. “The big argument here is that you have supported in the past embryonic stem cell research and you made a comment about how these fertilized eggs, these embryos are not yet ‘pre-human’ because they have not been implanted. This has upset conservatives in this state who worry you don’t see these fertilized eggs as human life. When do you think human life begins?”
Gingrich responded: “Well, I think the question of being implanted is a very big question. My friends who have ideological positions that sound good don’t then follow through the logic of: ‘So how many additional potential lives are they talking about? What are they going to do as a practical matter to make this real?
“I think,” Gingrich continued, “that if you take a position when a woman has fertilized egg and that’s been successfully implanted that now you’re dealing with life, because otherwise you’re going to open up an extraordinary range of very difficult quesitons.”
Wild Thing’s comment……
Just keep talking Newt, the whole you are digging is getting deeper and deeper. This is a good example of one that does have some smarts to match his blimp size ego .