Rick Santorum has said he objects to gay marriage because it would “destabilize the family.”

The 53-year-old Santorum made his remarks to a crowd of supporters in Spencer, Iowa on Tuesday.

Santorum said he doesn't have any problems with gay people, then added: “But doesn't mean that we should change the laws of this country, to destabilize the American family, to change the way we look at religious liberty in this country, to accommodate a different value structure.”

“It's not about them, it's about values,” he said. “It's about what America's basic moral values should be that would be reflected in the law.”

“Laws should try as much as possible to comport with the higher law and also should comport with what reason would dictate. And what reason dictates is that children need mothers and fathers. Some would say, 'Well, through technology, same-sex couples can have children.' Well they can, through either adoption, or artificial insemination … but they don't get the mother and a father.”

Adoption, Santorum argued, should be for parents “who don't want to raise their children,” not a system that says, “We are going to deliberately deny a child” a mother and a father. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

(Related: Rick Santorum objects to gay marriage because it would equalize gay couples.)