Maine Governor Shocks Media With Sickening Story Explaining Why He's Against Abortion and Domestic Abuse

Ben Johnson : Sep 15, 2014
LifeSiteNews.com

In 2012, Governor LePage flexed his pro-life muscles by signing a budget defunding a Planned Parenthood affiliate, and recently he opposed an effort by state health officials to enforce a "Do Not Resuscitate" order against a one-year-old girl against her family's wishes.

(Augusta, ME)—Gov. Paul LePage of Maine has a deep-seated, personal opposition to domestic violence and abortion. For the first time, he has revealed the dark, painful story that helped cement those convictions. (Photo via LSN)

On Wednesday, the pro-life governor told a local sports program that his abusive father beat his mother so severely when she was pregnant that she lost their unborn child.

"I remember, my dad, being about 10 years old, my dad kicking my mother seven months pregnant. A week later, it's a stillborn," the governor told WJJB-FM. "I blame my dad. End of story. End of story."

The hosts of "The Morning Jab," Dave "Shoe" Schumacher and Joe Palmieri, responded with shocked silence.

Gov. LePage's mother, Teresa, gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Marie, but the governor never disclosed the abuse until this week.

His sister, Diane Saindon, told the Portland Press Herald that she was too young to remember the specific incident, but affirmed that their father "beat [my mother] through all her pregnancies, when she was pregnant with all of us." The governor told WJJB that his father, a mill worker, "routinely beat my mother, and when we tried to intervene, we got it, too."

After one extreme episode that left him writhing on the floor, LePage, the oldest of 18 children, said he left his home in Lewiston at age 11 and spent two years homeless. Overcoming a lack of English skills (his first language is French), he worked his way up through the business world before becoming mayor of Waterville and, in 2010, governor of Maine.

As governor, he has placed fighting, cruelty to women, and unborn children, at the center of his administration.

LePage was on the radio program to discuss a letter he sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, saying he would not attend or watch football games until Ray Rice received a full suspension for punching his then-fiancee in February. "Taking thugs and wife-beaters off the field may be bad for business, but you are playing games with people's lives," LePage wrote.