Rick Santorum: Men Who Father Children With Multiple Women Are "Sexual Predators"

"Now these fathers leave the home and not just father children with that particular women, they father a child with another women, and another and another. We have created predators..."

YouTube/Da Tech Guy

Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum called men who father children with multiple women "sexual predators" in a speech to the socially-conservative Cornerstone organization in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

Santorum, who is expected to launch a campaign for president, cited statistics on marriage from Harvard professor Robert Putnam's book, Our Kids, when making his argument.

"Another new statistic just came out in his book. A majority of children being born out of wedlock today in America are born in families where the father is in the home. But they're not married," said Santorum. "So they are born to cohabiting couples. So the majority of children born out of wedlock are born to cohabiting couples. And what does Putnam say about these? They stuck to them longitudinally, they never get married. Let me use that term, never, like one or two percent ever get married."

"And he compared it when he was growing up in the 1950s and when children were conceived out of wedlock, what happened in the 1950s," added Santorum. "We all know what happened in the 1950s and here is the amazing thing, this is Putnam saying this, 80 plus percent of these marriages succeeded."

"And children were raised in stable homes. Now these fathers leave the home and not just father children with that particular women, they father a child with another women, and another and another. We have created predators, sexual predators particularly where, again, Putnam—low income America."

Putnam told BuzzFeed News that Santorum appeared to be, at times, using statistics not garnered from his book and, at times, using them "a little bit selectively" to make his argument on marriage. Putnam added that he couldn't find the 80 percent statistic in his book but said it could be true.

Putnam added, "I certainly don't, for sure, use the term 'sexual predators.'"

The full video of Santorum's speech, posted on YouTube by DaTechGuyBlog, can be viewed here.

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