Davenport: Republican Sarah Palin, who has a baby with Downs Syndrome, spoke out publicly about her stand against abortion saying she believed in "the potential of every human life."
Devout Christian Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee, has so far steered largely clear of the emotional issue of abortion since being chosen as John McCain's running mate in August.
But yesterday she told a Johnstown, Pennsylvania, rally it was an important subject, and tried to skewer Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama saying she had listened hard to his stand on abortion rights.
"It's hard to think of many issues that could possibly be more important than who is protected in law and who isn't. Who is granted life and who is denied it?" said the Alaska governor, who is known to oppose abortion in almost every circumstance. "So I listened when our opponent defended his unconditional support for unlimited abortions and he said that a woman shouldn't have to be, quote, punished with a baby. "It's about time that we called him on it."
Palin, 44, was talking a day after a probe in Alaska found that she had abused her power in Alaska by violating ethics rules when she let husband, Todd, pressure top officials into firing her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper.
"I believe the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who are least able to defend and to speak for themselves. And who is more vulnerable or more innocent than a child?" she told the rally, as a baby could be heard crying in the background.
