By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
DAVENPORT — Growing up as a young man in the 1970s, Rick Santorum said life issues never crossed his mind.
Santorum, a former U.S. senator and onetime presidential candidate, was in the Quad Cities for an Oct. 23 fundraiser for the Bettendorf-based Women’s Choice Center. The event, which drew about 240 people, was held at the RiverCenter in downtown Davenport.
Santorum said he couldn’t avoid the issue when he decided to enter the political arena.
In 1990, “I sat down with several physicians. I wanted to know when life begins. It was very clear,” he said, that “life begins at conception.”
Santorum said crisis pregnancy centers, like the Women’s Choice Center, “are on the front line of the pro-life movement.
“Thousands of witnesses (lives) have been saved. Think of the number of young people who wouldn’t be alive if they were not saved.”
The centers are “messengers for the dignity of life. They are there to show God’s unconditional love. They are there to support the women and show God’s love,” he said. “The centers win hearts and lives and heal souls.”
Vicki Tyler, executive director of the Women’s Choice Center said the evening was a “power-packed event with a powerful testimony from one of our clients — Ngoc Pham. She came to us ready to abort, but God transformed her heart and her entire life. A wonderful story.”
Santorum “did an awesome job as well. He reminded all of us that the voice of one needs to be heard and we need to help change the culture of our country. He challenged each of us to do our part and not passively sit back and do nothing. He really challenged pastors to speak the truth from the pulpit and not to shy away from it.”