Palin Confesses: I Struggled With Final Pregnancy

Alaska governor tells anti-abortion crowd she chose life -- but once waivered

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a staunch anti-abortion politician, said that she struggled with the news that she was pregnant for a fifth time -- and even considered "trying to change the circumstances," according to reports.

Palin became tearful when discussing the birth of her son Trig in front of a large crowd of anti-abortion rights activists in Indiana Thursday and one report suggested that she even considered terminating the pregnancy "just for a fleeting moment."

While she never used the term abortion, her frank talk was understood -- and applauded -- by her audience.

The former Vice Presidential candidate said she was out of state at an oil and gas conference when she found out she was pregnant. It was there that she had waivered briefly, ABC News reported.

"There, just for a fleeting moment, I thought, I knew, nobody knows me here. Nobody would ever know," Palin said, according to ABC News. "I thought, wow, it is easy. It could be easy to think maybe of trying to change the circumstances. No one would know. No one would ever know."

The governor's doubt was compounded, she said, when she learned that Trig would be born with Down syndrome. She turned to prayer to guide her through the turmoil, she said.

"I had to ask myself, 'Was I going to walk the walk or was I just going to talk the talk?'" she recalled. "It is easy to think maybe of trying to change the circumstances."

But she called her son, who will turn a year-old on Saturday, a "miracle."

"He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity. Life is valuable because it is ordained. I had just enough faith to know that trying to change the circumstances wasn't any answer."

The candid tale was told in front of 3,000 people at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet in Evansville. It was Palin's first speech out of her home state since she and Sen. John McCain were defeated by Barack Obama in the race for president.

Palin recounted her personal struggle as a way to show that she understands what women facing unwanted pregnancies "go through in that thought process."

She mentioned that her own daughter Bristol became pregnant as an unmarried teen and has since given birth to a son.

Palin's comments won her praise from opponents of abortion.

"I think everyone of us, every human being, has had it go through their mind, the possibility of an act they know is wrong -- and then rejected," David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee told the Washington Post.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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