LOS ANGELES – Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, accused the Obama administration on Sunday of transforming abortion into a U.S. export and breaking faith with the nation’s founding principles by supporting taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research.

The conservative Republican has long been at odds with President Barack Obama’s stand on reproductive rights and stem cell research, but his remarks at an anti-abortion rally amounted to a political introduction to a mostly Hispanic crowd of about 5,000 at a downtown arena.

The governor had dismissed talk that he would seek the GOP nomination next year, but he re-ignited speculation about two weeks ago with an off-the-cuff remark: “I’m going to think about it.” Since then, two of Perry’s former top political advisers fled Newt Gingrich’s troubled presidential campaign, while Perry scheduled trips to Los Angeles, New York and New Orleans that could raise his national profile.

Perry was greeted warmly by the crowd, and left to a standing ovation.

“Every life is precious,” Perry said, as his remarks were repeated by a translator in Spanish. He said the direction of stem cell research under the Obama administration was “turning the remains of unborn children into nothing more than raw material.”

Perry also faulted Obama for reversing the so-called “Mexico City policy” that banned giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide information about abortions. Obama struck down the policy during his first week in office, saying it was too broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.

Under Obama “our federal tax dollars can now be used to fund abortion all over the world. With the stroke of a pen, abortion essentially became a U.S. foreign export,” Perry said.