Sarah Palin told a Kansas City audience Monday night that she knows what it's like to "lose hope" when confronted with the impending birth of a special needs child.
In an intensely personal 47-minute testimonial to the Vitae Foundation, an anti-abortion group, the former Alaska governor claimed 85 to 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted.
Her son Trig was born with Down in 2008 not long before she became John McCain's vice-presidential running mate.
That statistic tells some women that "these are impossible circumstances," she said. "Somebody is telling them this is too much for you to handle."
She said she had "fleeting thoughts" about how to handle the pregnancy, which wound up giving her a clearer understanding of the desperation some women experience.
At a critical moment, Palin recalled hearing a whisper from the Holy Spirit, "just asking me, 'Are you going to trust me? Are you going to walk the walk, or are you just going to talk the talk?' "
Palin, 46, said she thanked God for Trig's birth because it "reaffirmed and strengthened my unwavering support for life at every stage."
"Choosing life may not always be the easy path, but it is always the right path," Palin said. "God does see a way where we would think there is no way. And he does not make mistakes.
"We may say, 'Oops,' but he doesn't.'
Palin, considered a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, spoke to an audience of about 1,300 at Bartle Hall.
Although Palin remains an influential force in 2010 races across the country, she steered clear of partisan politics Monday night, saying nothing about any political plans.
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