GOP senator sees parallel between abortion, slavery

WASHINGTON – Sen. Rick Santorum compares abortion to slavery in his new book “It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good,” which is being promoted as an alternative to the views of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The book by Santorum, R-Pa., was in Washington bookstores Tuesday. It describes his evolution from a young politician uncomfortable with abortion to a major player in the anti-abortion movement.

It tackles subjects ranging from home schooling to welfare reform, and advocates family over what he describes as the big government village in Clinton’s 1996 book, “It Takes a Village.”

“The African proverb says, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ ” Santorum writes. “The American version is ‘It takes a village to raise a child – if the village wants that child.’ “

Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, is sometimes touted as a possible 2008 presidential candidate.

He could face a tough re-election battle for his Senate seat in 2006. Early polling shows him behind Pennsylvania state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., the favorite to win the Democratic primary.

In the book, Santorum makes the case that abortion puts the liberty rights of the mother before those of her child, just as the rights of slave owners were put before those of slaves.

“This was tried once before in America,” Santorum writes. “But unlike abortion today, in most states even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave.”

Santorum questions why Clinton and other liberals tout decreasing abortion numbers if abortion is OK.