Rick Santorum: Akin "good man" who made "ridiculous" comment

(CBS News) Asked about Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's recent controversial comments about rape, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum called Rep. Akin a "good man" who made a "ridiculous statement."

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Akin came under fire after suggesting in a local interview that women are unlikely to become pregnant if raped.

"It seems to me first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said earlier this month when asked whether he would support abortions for rape victims. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," he said of a rape victim's chances of becoming pregnant.

Akin was quick to apologize for his remarks and said he made a "very, very serious error." Nevertheless, he insisted he would stay in the Senate race in defiance of Republican leadership and launched an ad asking voters for their forgiveness.

Santorum said on "CBS This Morning" from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., that Akin "didn't do a very good job in dealing with the problems that came from that statement, and he's suffering the consequences for it."

However, Santorum said the Republican Party is on the winning side of this issue. "If you look at young people, young people are more pro-life than our generation," he said. "And why? Because, well, science is a hard thing to overcome. You look at that 4-D sonogram in the womb and you see that child with fingers and hands and the beating heart and looks like you and me, and it's hard to look at that and say, 'Well, that's not a person, that's not someone who deserves protection.' And I think more and more people are moving in our direction, and I think society is moving in our direction and I think that's a good thing for us."

Santorum was the last man standing between Mitt Romney and the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum won 11 states and 255 delegates during the primaries.

He'll be speaking at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Tuesday night, and is asking his delegates to vote for Romney.

For more with Santorum, including talk about the work requirement for welfare in the U.S. and his differences with Romney, click on the video in the player above.