Santorum: ‘Every life is worth it’

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) and his wife, Karen, are opening up about their family’s experience celebrating the life of their young daughter, who was born with a rare genetic condition.

{mosads}Santorum, who ended his 2012 presidential campaign after a trio of primary losses and the hospitalization of his daughter, explained his experience trying to manage a White House bid amid complications from her condition during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think moms and dads handle things differently,” Santorum said as the pair shared details of their new book, due out Tuesday.

“You look at the high percentage of divorce among parents of disabled children and it’s one of the reasons that motivated us to write this to give people a real inside look,” Santorum said.

“Look, this isn’t easy, but it’s a great gift. These kids are a gift. And every life is worth it,” he added.

The couple’s new book focuses on their daughter Bella, 6, who was born with a condition called Trisomy 18, which doctors deem terminal.

“She’s doing great,” Karen Santorum said. “She’s been just really healthy and stable, and just a real joy to our family.”

Santorum, who is considering another presidential bid in 2016, noted that his youngest daughter is “doing really, really well” and her condition is “frankly not as big a concern for us this time around as last time.”

During an Iowa presidential candidate forum in 2012, Santorum admitted he had deluded himself into thinking “it wouldn’t hurt as much if I lost her.”

Karen Santorum was reportedly “livid” he shared details of their daughter’s condition during the campaign.

“It could be misinterpreted, as if Rick didn’t love Bella, when, in fact, he did love Bella, but because we had lost a baby years before, he was so afraid of that hurt again and having to revisit that,” she said on “This Week.”

Santorum said there are “a lot of other factors” besides his daughter’s condition to consider before launching another White House bid.

“But with respect to Bella, we feel good enough to actually go out and tell the story and put a book out there with a lot of confidence,” he said.