UPDATE: Here's a more complete look at her talk
The governor's 30-minute speech was folksy and full of digressions, but also surprisingly confessional, and she went into some detail about initially panicking after learning, 13 weeks into her pregnancy, that her son would be born with Down syndrome: "That blew me away, it rocked my world… It was a time I asked myself, was I going to walk the walk?"She was on a trip out of state at the time, she said, and "just for a fleeting moment I thought, 'No one knows me here; no one would ever know.' ... My amniocentesis came back and then I understood why some people would think they could change their circumstances, just take care of it. Todd didn't even know" the results of the prenatal testing yet, so "no one would know.""Plus, I was old," she continued. "And I thought, 'Very funny, God. My name's Sarah, but my husband's not Abraham, he's Todd.'" At 44, she said, she had a hard time imagining changing diapers again, not to mention "putting down the BlackBerry and picking up the breast pump."Though it was unclear from her remarks how seriously she considered terminating the pregnancy, she assured the audience that "we went through some things a year ago that's helped me understand a woman and a girl's temptation to make this go away."
We will try and get the full text of this speech.
Palin stands against abortion during Ind. speech
Palin said the challenges she faced during her pregnancy with her son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, gave her an opportunity to live out her anti-abortion beliefs. She said she prayed often during her pregnancy, especially after tests revealed that her son would be born with the condition.
"The moment he was born, I knew that moment my prayers had been answered," Palin said. "Trig is a miracle. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity."
She challenged the notion that children must be born perfect and that unplanned pregnancies are inconvenient and can be ended by abortion. "I know for sure my son is perfect just as he is, made in the image of God," she said.
She asked the crowd to keep working for the "culture of life" in America.
"Life is ordained, life is precious," she said.
We are all born with free will - choice is just another word for it. Ms. Palin shows us a well-worn path many of us have traveled. We all know we have the free will to do what we want, that no one will know. But WE know. HE knows. We choose life, even when it's hard.
Posted by: thea mcginnis | April 21, 2009 at 12:23 PM