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Palin Says She Considered Abortion

Melinda Henneberger

AOL Political Columnist

posted: 3 HOURS 40 MINUTES AGO

comments: 4007

filed under: Sarah Palin, Political News

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EVANSVILLE, Ind. (April 16) -- In her first out-of-state political appearance since last fall's presidential election, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin confided to 3,000 at a right-to-life event here that she had "just for a fleeting moment" contemplated seeking an abortion after learning she was pregnant with her son Trig, who will turn 1 on Saturday.

Back in Alaska, the governor's decision to travel here, in the final days of a heated legislative session, was criticized even by some fellow Republicans as an inappropriate attempt to position herself for a 2012 presidential run at a time when she was badly needed at home.

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But at the Vanderburgh County Right-to-Life banquet -- the country's largest such annual event -- supporters said they only hoped the governor's appearance at the Oscar-length, four-hour dinner was a warm-up for a Palin presidential bid. "She's showing that you can choose life and still be successful," said Susan Weber, a school cafeteria manager and mother of four from Princeton, Ind., who was wearing a Sarah Palin 2012 campaign button and had brought along a book she hoped to get autographed -- 'The Terminatrix,' featuring a gun-toting, leather-clad (and Photoshopped) Palin on the cover.

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?"

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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."

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Another worry in what she called "my moments of doubt" was whether she could love the child enough. "Believe it or not, I didn't even know what a baby with Down syndrome was going to look like or feel like." She found the subject hard to research, she said, and "I had to ask that my heart be filled up" with feeling for her unborn son. That prayer was answered the minute he was born, she said.

"My heart overflowed. I felt a love I had never felt before. He's brought amazing, surprising happiness; he's the best thing that has ever happened to me."

Palin is a hero to the pro-life movement, of course, and her fans said they only admired her more after hearing her story. "That just made her even more real," one woman said. Former San Diego Padre scout Bill McKeon called her "the Joan of Arc of the 21st century," and a woman in the crowd, Karla Bowers, predicted that Palin would have to run for president in 2012 because "the people will not let her go; no one else draws this kind of crowd."

Several people mentioned that they attribute much of the criticism of her to their impression that, as Tandi Alexander, who works in the financial office of Evansville’s Deaconess Hospital, put it, "If you stand up for what's right, they will try to find something wrong, and she confesses that she's a Christian."

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Earlier in the day, the Republican-controlled Alaska legislature voted to reject two of Palin’s appointments, including her controversial nominee for attorney general, Wayne Ross, who in 1991 was quoted as saying, "If a guy can't rape his wife, who’s he gonna rape?" Her fellow Republicans in the Alaska statehouse have also made clear that they intend to ignore her opposition to accepting $400 million in stimulus funds. And in Washington, there's talk that Palin's political prospects have essentially evaporated.

But her admirers here note that the more she's counted out by big-shots, the better they like her. "I just like that she's the common person," said Jason Blagg, a college student in a Palin 2012 T-shirt who had driven four hours to stand in the lobby outside the event. Some 800 ticket holders watched Palin in an overflow auditorium on closed-circuit TV -- sans the pork chops and red velvet cake served in the main banquet hall.

Not present at the dinner, however, was the local Catholic bishop, Gerald Gettelfinger, who earlier had announced that he would be skipping the event because of keynote speaker and GOP chairman Michael Steele's recent reference to abortion as "an individual choice" in an interview published in GQ magazine.

In his remarks at the banquet, however, Steele could not have been clearer about his opposition to abortion rights, which he said came from the fact that his birth mother had given him up for adoption.

And a number of Catholics in the crowd made it equally clear that they weren't happy with their bishop. "I have to figure out how to say this. I respectfully disagree?" said Grace Robertson, who started the local Gabriel Project, which helps pregnant women who are struggling. "I could say a bushel more, but I won't."

Before the dinner, I asked Steele about the bishop's absence and he said, "That's the beauty of choice -- and he has chosen not to be here." Asked about Palin’s chances in 2012, he called her one of the leading contenders for the presidential nomination. "She's an energizer for us. I'm very excited for her leadership," whether or not she decides to run.

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Which she will, right? About midway through the long program, I saw Todd Palin in the lobby, taking a break and chatting up a local police officer, and asked him if his wife had made up her mind. "I'm not sure," he said, dashing away, "but I'm gonna go back inside now."

After a recitation of abortion stats, a Christian pop singer's rendition of his hit song, 'Life Inside You,' and a testimonial from a nervous young mom who rocked her baby as she told about deciding against ending her pregnancy, Steele introduced Palin as his own first choice for the vice presidential nominee last year. "I watched her take the world stage by storm, and she has just begun to write the chapters of the history of this country. I'm honored to present to you the storm that is the governor of Alaska."

Noticeably thinner than during the campaign, Palin was dressed entirely in black, from butterfly barrettes to somber suit to peep-toe pumps. "It's great to be in Indiana, the crossroads of America," she began. "I kid you not, I whispered to Todd right before I came up here, 'What's your favorite movie? 'Hoosiers!' 'Hoosiers!' America likes an underdog."

She shot right back at those who had criticized her for coming: "I've got some adversaries and they're gonna crucify me if I say yes" to leaving the state. "Some don't believe in sharing. Some are parochial and ...condemn everything I do, but especially leaving the state. Which is ironic, because these are the same critics who would love to see me outside the state permanently!"

She also took a couple of easy swipes at the media, saying that if she got anything wrong in a list of fun facts about Alaska, "I don't want Katie Couric calling me."

And she argued that Obama's economic stimulus package is "bad for our states; this isn't free money, folks. We may find ourselves enslaved by the nations that hold our notes." The heart of her talk, though, involved the crazy ride of her own life over the last year or so. One reason she'd kept her surprise pregnancy to herself until just a month before she delivered, she said, was that "there are some Neanderthals out there" who don't think a woman can be pregnant and work.

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Meanwhile, her adult son, Track, had announced that he would be shipping out for Iraq, and "my strong, independent, smart daughter came to me and painstakingly confided that she was going to be a mom. ...Oh, what a year."

A year that also included a run for the vice presidency. "I borrowed a few clothes and had a couple of sit-down interviews -- oh, those went real well -- and soon I felt the need to provide Tina Fey with some job security," Palin said.

Will she put herself through that again? She sounds like someone who not only will, but already is. "I have a feeling," she said right after taking the podium, "that I will leave here with new energy and inspiration, and I will re-start my engine."

Melinda Henneberger is a columnist and editor of AOL's forthcoming political Web site, PoliticsDaily.com.

2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.

2009-04-17 06:39:40

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Wendnesday 2002

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

who won

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Semperfi7x

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

Umm, speaking of abortions...Did anyone follow the Palin candidacy? I think we can add Sarah's performance to the definition.

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GorringA

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

BT7604 07:18 PMApr 17 2009 GorringA 07:16 PMApr 17 2009 AJGORM 07:14 PMApr 17 2009 Gingrich / Palin 2012>>>>You are getting warmer!!! lol..BUT YOU'RE HOT!>>>>Your not to bad yourself!!!!!

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Karfitter

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

Ya cant take stupid out of context there now can ya!!! You bet cha

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Illumind

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

Because she is a Christian and believes the Bible to be the Word of God, the Holy Spirit helped her to make the decision that was right with God

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Brighteyes045

07:21 PMApr 17 2009

Sarah you can't hold a candle to Tina Fey....She helped make you popular...

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Walkabjdog

07:20 PMApr 17 2009

RedTress - I am going to vote for someone that can balance their check book, come up with a PLANNED budget and stick to it and that breaks even or has a little left over at the end of the year for a rainy day. I know they are rare people but there has got to be some out there somewhere......ANY HEADS OF HOUSEHOULDS WANT TO APPLY? You just change your thousands into billions and you can do it.

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MRobert21

07:20 PMApr 17 2009

It is pretty easy to "choose life" when you are a rich politician like Sarah and Shadow Governor Todd Palin are, so the Palin "choice" means zilch. Sarah Palin is lying because she and her husband would never have an abortion while in office, particularly in a nutty right wing state like Alaska, since it would have instantly ended her political career as a god nut Republican to have an abortion (no Vice Presidential bid or reelection as Governor). Sarah Palin is having an army of nurses and nannies raising her kids (paid by tax payer cash), as all rich people do, so Palin had no need to even consider abortion. Shadow Governor Todd Palin just came up with this bull crap story about Sarah considering abortion to make her a hero to god nuts (it is intended to make her seem more virtuous that she resisted the evil abortion temptation).Abortion is a meaningless issue because it is never going to change and it affects a tiny minority of Americans. America has been taken over by sociali...

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Xlttydu

07:19 PMApr 17 2009

Don't get me wrong, I want Obama and his Marxist regime out of office more than anyone but please, Sarah Palin???? Get real folks! If you think she has a snowballs chance in hell of winning the 2012 election then you're more screwed up than the Obama Sheeple on here. Mitt Romney is the best choice for the Republican Party to eradicate the current scum out of the White House.

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EZBATTLE

07:18 PMApr 17 2009

HEAVYMETALTRUCKER: WELL SAID! THEY TRY TO SOUND LIKE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT EVEN THROW A BIBLE VERSE HERE AND THERE! TOO FUNNY!

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