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WATERLOO, Iowa, June 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the brightest stars of the American pro-life scene, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, officially announced today that she is seeking to defeat Barack Obama in 2012 on the GOP ticket.

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The congresswoman had publicized her decision earlier this month during a GOP presidential debate, but saved the official kickoff for a speech Monday morning in Waterloo, Iowa.

Bachmann, who grew up in Iowa before her family departed for Minnesota when she was 12, recalled the fond childhood memories that connect her with the state’s conservative values.

“We need more Iowa,” she said. “We need more closeness, more families, more love for each other, more concern about each other, more taking that sensibility that we grew up knowing, and the pride we knew here. To take that idea that is America … it’s not too late.”

The three-term congresswoman has stressed her pro-life and pro-family credentials throughout the lead-up to her official campaign launch, and those values have proven a defining factor in her political career.

“[The] life of the unborn is not a sidebar issue. This is it,” said Bachmann, mother of five and foster mother of 23, at the 2011 Rose Dinner following the March for Life in January. “It is the issue that impacts more than any other how you view other issues.”

On Capitol Hill, Bachmann has been a figurehead for pro-life causes. Earlier this year she pushed for a budget amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, and strenuously opposed compromise stopgap budget measures that omitted the defunding language.

“We shouldn’t have one red cent go for Planned Parenthood,” Bachmann told a Susan B. Anthony List webcast in March, adding that she was ready to fight “eyeball-to-eyeball” for the defunding amendment.

A further sign of her mounting political momentum arrived over the weekend in the form of a Des Moines Register poll placing support for Bachmann at 22 percent, only one point behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Bachmann had also placed second to Romney following her performance in a New Hampshire GOP debate on June 13.

Both President Obama and former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin are also expected to visit Iowa on Tuesday. Palin has said she is visiting the key battleground state to view the premiere of the documentary ‘Undefeated,’ which narrates the tale of her own story, in Pella, Iowa.