Op-Ed: Palin Confession Shocked 3,000 of Her Closest Friends at Dinner

In either what can be described as something synonymous with a death-bed confession or for the cynical, another example of hypocrisy, Gov. Sarah Palin confided in 3,000 people that she considered having an abortion when she was pregnant with Trig.

Ironically, her confessional bearing of soul and deep inner secret thoughts came at her first out-of-state public outing since her and John McCain’s feeble, albeit misguided attempts to lead the country in the last presidential election. Yep. She chose a marathon four-hour fund raising dinner hosted by the Vanderburgh County Right to Life group in Evansville, Indiana, to blab all last night. Since there was no description of the audience’s immediate reaction, so I can only tell ya that I imagine that there must have been hushed silence followed by audible gasps followed by mournful pleas for smelling salts. In her 30-minute speech, described as folksy and meandering, Palin said she was shocked and panicked to learn that 13 weeks into her pregnancy her son would be born with Down’s syndrome:

"That blew me away, it rocked my world… It was a time I asked myself, was I going to walk the walk?"

She continued:

"…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."

Rationalizing further, she said:

"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."

Well, she had that part right. Older women have a greater chance of having a Down’s baby than younger women; it’s a medical statistical fact, and one of the reasons amnio test are done…to give women the choice of bringing a child into to world who will have a lifetime of problems and need a lifetime of care, or not. I wonder if it occurred to her just how unfair it is to a child to bring him into the world when he already has two strikes against him. And from watching people handle Trig during the campaign, I’d say he has more than the usual problems associated with the syndrome. In my entire life, and I’ve been around a lot of babies, I have never seen a child who was as motionless as little Trig. I feel terribly sorry for the little guy and have always wondered just how handicapped he is. I wonder if he will ever be able to sit up, walk or talk, or if he will even recognize what is going on around him, or recognize his mother, father and siblings. From Palin’s own quotes, I doubt she thought about him and his condition for one second as it pertains to him, but she did think about herself. Further examples of which are the following:

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."

Another ’me, me, me’ statement and one showing how terribly ignorant she is. It’s incredulous that she did not know what a baby with Down’s syndrome was going to look like. Perhaps if the old unpleasant non-PC term had been used, it would have registered with her. In case you haven’t guessed, I have no use for the likes of Sarah Palin. To me, she more than proved that she is anything but a kind person. She has no heart or compassion for her fellow humans or creatures with which she shares this planet. She is the ultimate hypocrite, a prevaricator, totally ego centric, will use anybody to get her way including her pregnant daughter, will shove anyone who gets in her way out the door and so much more. She’s usually good for a laugh, but this is no laughing matter. The right for a woman to choose and have control over her body is to be taken with the utmost seriousness. To interfere with that right as Sarah Palin and her ilk would, by preventing women from having abortions is a bad as if I and like-thinking women were to want to force Palin to have an abortion when she was pregnant with Trig. For good or ill for the child and for herself, it was her decision to make and hers alone. I’m sure the lesson of her freedom to make her own choice was lost on her, because I’m afraid she’s incapable of learning anything that runs counter to her personal ambitions and playing to her hard, rigid core of ultra right wing supporters.