If people are born gay or transgender, Santorum posited, “it leads to a whole bunch of other situations,” like sex-selective abortions, for example.

“So if you can determine whether one of your children is gay, should we pass a law saying you can’t abort a child because you found out that child’s going to be gay? You can’t abort a child because you found out that child was going to be a woman? How would you feel about a law like that?” he asked Maddow.

Asked whether believed being gay is a choice, Santorum said he has never answered the question because he does not really know the answer.

“There are people who are alive today who identified themselves as gay and lesbian and who no longer are. That’s true. I do know, I’ve met people in that case. So I guess maybe in that case, maybe they did,” he said, adding that he does “know people who have lived the gay lifestyle and no longer live it.”