Rick Santorum said he suspects rumors that he and his wife have been lying about the circumstances of their own child’s death may have originated with Bill Clinton’s White House.
As the Santorums were grieving the loss of their son, Gabriel, an article appeared on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer that accused them of having a late-term abortion.
"It was so painful to my family, specifically to my wife, I can’t even begin to explain," Santorum told the Washington Free Beacon. "You lose a child and you go through the grief and depression from that, and then somebody tells you that you killed your child."
Santorum said he has always wondered where the article came from.
After the Washington Free Beacon reported that Bill Clinton himself thought that the Santorums secretly decided to have an abortion, Santorum wants Clinton to "come clean about whether he came to this conclusion because he read the Inquirer or whether he planted the story with the Inquirer."
Santorum emerged as a major political rival to Clinton by leading the fight in Congress to override Clinton’s veto of the partial-birth abortion ban.
"This is a chicken and egg issue for me," Santorum said. "Did the White House put this forward as retribution for going after them on the override of their veto, or did Clinton just get the story and come to that conclusion after he read it? One of those two things happened and I’m not sure that I would put it past the White House that the first is true."
Clinton confessed his frustrations with his fight with Santorum over partial birth abortion during his conversation with biographer Taylor branch, saying that the pro-choice movement had been pushed "into a losing political situation" and made "a statesman out of Rick Santorum."
"Politically speaking, the pro-life forces have been far more sophisticated and smarter than the pro-choice forces in this battle," Clinton said, according to Branch.
Clinton grew so frustrated with having to defend the "gruesome" procedure that he wanted the pro-choice movement to cave on the issue of partial-birth abortion in hopes it would make their side look "reasonable."
"The pro-choice should have accepted the partial-birth abortion ban to show that they were reasonable," Clinton said in 1997, according to the recording.
Santorum said he suspects Clinton may have leaked his suspicions of abortion to the Philadelphia Inquirer out of animosity.
"Obviously, Clinton did not have a very favorable opinion of me, and it’s because we were winning the PR war," said Santorum. "It would not surprise me if, in response for losing the PR war, he would try to discredit the person that was leading the charge."
Santorum said he and his wife "offer forgiveness" to Clinton for what he said, but called for answers on "whether it was his White House that planted the story."
"My only concern is for Clinton to be transparent about what transpired at that time, but I have no expectation that Clinton would tell the truth of whether he did or not," Santorum said.
The Clinton Foundation did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.