Karen Santorum defends her husband on Piers Morgan (VIDEO)
Presidential candidate and former Senator Rick Santorum and his wife Karen Santorum visit CODERI, a school for children with Down syndrome and other special needs, March 15, 2012 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Santorum is on the second day of two-day campaign trip to where there are 23 GOP delegates up for grabs for the republican presidential nomination. The Santorum’s daughter Isabella is a special needs child diagnosed with Edward’s syndrome.
Karen Santorum, the wife of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, stepped up to the plate to defend her husband on Piers Morgan's CNN talk show Monday night, saying that he is not "anti-women" as some critics have claimed.
"Women have nothing to fear. When it comes to contraceptives, he will do nothing on that issue," Karen said in an interview with Morgan, the Hill reported. "I think the real issue was, what I said, about the religious freedom issue and not allowing the government to be intrusive in our lives."
More from GlobalPost: Obama administration's birth control mandate brings lawsuit from 7 states
Karen, a 51-year-old mother of seven, author, and registered nurse, was interviewed by Morgan right before Senator Scott Brown, who recently poked fun at Santorum’s stance on contraception when he joked that Rick Santorum’s Secret Service detail is the first time he has “used protection,” ABC News reported.
“Sometimes you have to just laugh and other times you just shut it out and ignore it,” Karen Santorum told Morgan. “But I thought that was kind of funny.”
Rick Santorum has been severely critical of Obama's heath care law which required insurance companies to provide birth control for employees. The law also required religious organizations to include contraception coverage in their healthcare plans, but Obama has since shifted his plan so that religious employees could get birth control from heath insurers directly, The Hill reported.
More from GlobalPost: Karen Santorum's ex is an abortion doctor: Newsweek
According to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll, Santorum’s approval ratings amongst Republican-leaning women have increased significantly over the past month, from 44 percent to 66 percent. Santorum now has the highest favorability rating out of all the GOP presidential candidates, the Washington Post reported.
"When I was doing my book tours, Piers, Rick was the one who was home changing diapers and making meals and cleaning the kitchen. He's been one hundred percent supportive of me," Santorum said of her husband, according to Piers Morgan's blog.
According to a new Public Policy Poll Karen Santorum has a 31 percent approval rating; her husband has a 36 percent favorability rating, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?