Karen Garver and Dr Tom AllenA Daily Beast eye opener Before Karen Met Rick is a jaw-dropper. We know that the GOP contender’s wife is opposed to birth control as well as abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Mrs. Santorum — who herself survived a health emergency, receiving treatment most call a form of abortion but she insists was a natural delivery in the hospital of a 20-week old fetus that lived two hours, with no help from doctors or drugs (ahem) — has a new revelation.

Karen Garver Santorum lived through most of her 20s in a five-six year relationship with Tom Allen, a Pittsburgh obstetrician and abortion provider 40 years older than she.

The young woman’s father was a pediatrician and many of his patients were referred to him by Allen. Karen Garver left Tom Allen after meeting new love Rick Santorum. Karen apparently changed career courses from nursing to pursue her future as a lawyer. Garver met her future husband as an intern at Rick Santorum’s law firm.

Karen Garver Santorum, who left her six-year relationship with Dr Tom Allen after meeting Rick Santorum.Before changing gears, here please note that Rick Santorum said in 1997, that of course he would have chosen to save his wife’s life. Today he condemns her to death and their other children motherless — and Karen agrees.

“The doctors said they were talking about a matter of hours or a day or two before risking sepsis and both of them might die,” Santorum said. “Obviously, if it was a choice of whether both Karen and the child are going to die or just the child is going to die, I mean it’s a pretty easy call.”

Both Rick Santorum and his wife Karen are virulently opposed to any exceptions in the abortion debate, believing that birth control is also form of abortion. Believers in home schooling, it seems fare to say that the Santorums espouse a very traditional view of relations between men and women, even if Karen had a rather progressive beginning as a young adult woman.

Karen Santorum Lived for Several Years with National Leader in Safe Abortions

In fact, Dr Allen delivered Mrs. Santorum, born Karen Garver, in 1960. Karen Santorum’s six-year-long May-December affair began when she was 22 and a nursing student at Duquesne University and Allen was 63 and founder of the Magee-Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Dr Allen’s enjoyment of much younger women was well known and the reason for his first divorce. Karen Garver called Allen for advice on an apartment near Duquesne University and moved into a basement apartment close by Allen’s two-floor apartment.

Recalling the day they began their relationship the Daily Mail picks up the story:

‘That first night, as soon as it got dark, she called to say she was scared and asked if she could come up.

‘I figured it was a come-on, but that was OK’.

During her relationship with Dr Allen, Karen Garver saw the world with several European holidays, as well as a trip to Hong Kong. Her partner bought her a grand piano and paid to have her teeth straightened. That’s a pretty sweet situation.

Six Degrees of Separation

Reading the Beast story, I shook my head over the details of Karen Santorum’s relationship with Dr Allen and his clinic, traveling back in time to my own Karen Garver years.