Citing his 3-year-old daughter’s struggles with a terminal illness, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out of the Republican presidential primary race Tuesday, effectively securing the GOP nomination for Mitt Romney.
“We were very concerned about our role being the best parents we possibly could to our children,” Santorum explained at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pa., with his family by his side. He said he and his wife, Karen, made the decision to withdraw over the weekend, as his daughter Bella was admitted and then released from the hospital.
The youngest of the eight Santorum children, Bella was born with Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder that has a very low survival rate. Santorum, a devout Catholic, often told his daughter’s story as a way of illustrating the value of every human life. Citing his 3-year-old daughter’s struggles with a terminal illness, former...