Palin's pro-life work hits home

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By Gary Emerling

ST. PAUL, Minn. | Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has long backed abstinence prior to marriage and urged the nurturing of pregnant teens. A few months before the biggest political leap of her life, both issues hit home.

Mrs. Palin said Monday that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant out of wedlock. It was revealed just three days after Sen. John McCain named the first-term governor as his vice-presidential running mate in a move aimed in part at bolstering the senator's appeal among social conservatives.

Mrs. Palin, 44 and a mother of five, is an influential member of the pro-life women's rights group Feminists for Life of America, which presses for extra support for young mothers. While running for governor in 2006, Mrs. Palin identified herself as "pro-contraception" and said she would support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education programs.

"I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life," Mrs. Palin told the Anchorage Daily News.

Mrs. Palin released the news of Bristol's pregnancy through Mr. McCain's presidential campaign in an effort to quell Internet rumors that her infant son, Trig, was actually her grandson.

In a statement, Mrs. Palin said her daughter, now five months pregnant, would have the baby with the full support of her family. She also said Bristol would marry the father of the baby.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," Mrs. Palin said in a joint statement with her husband, Todd.

After releasing the statement, the McCain campaign said it would take a hands-off approach to the situation. Campaign officials said the senator from Arizona knew about the pregnancy when he was considering a running mate and chose Mrs. Palin anyway.

"This is the governor's daughter; it is their issue," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain's top policy adviser.

Mr. McCain announced Mrs. Palin as his running mate on Friday in a surprise move designed to steal some of the momentum of the Democratic National Convention, where Barack Obama accepted the party's presidential nomination a day earlier. Campaigning Monday in Monroe, Mich., Mr. Obama warned the media to "back off" any criticism of Bristol's pregnancy and told reporters that families - and especially children - should be off limits during the presidential campaign.