This past Saturday in a speech at a campaign stop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Sarah Palin slammed Barack Obama for what she called his "radical" record on abortion and contrasted it with her own and John McCain's views on the issue (To see a video of the beginning of the speech, see here.
Palin's Johnstown speech came just six and a half months after the Democratic presidential nominee infamously told a crowd in the same city that he supported unlimited access to abortion because he didn't want his daughters to be "punished" with a baby, if they should experience an unwanted pregnancy.
"[Obama] said that a woman shouldn't have to be - quote - 'punished with a baby,'" Palin told booing supporters. "He said that right here in Johnstown - 'punished with a baby' - and it's about time we called him on it."
Palin said that, in contrast to Obama, she and McCain, "believe in the goodness and potential of every innocent life."
"I believe the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who are least able to defend and speak for themselves," she said. "And who is more vulnerable, or more innocent, than a child?"
The Alaskan governor told the crowds that when she found out that she was pregnant with a Down syndrome child - her son Trig - she was "scared."
"I had to prepare my heart for the challenges to come. At first I was scared, and Todd and I had to ask for strength and understanding." Nevertheless, she said, the experience of having a handicapped child has taught her that "every innocent life matters."
"Every child has something to contribute to the world, if we give them that chance. There are the world's standards of perfection … and then there are God's, and these are the final measure. Every child is beautiful before God, and dear to Him for their own sake."
Palin continued, highlighting Obama's support for partial-birth abortion - a procedure that Palin quoted Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as labeling "too close to infanticide" - and his opposition to the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA). Obama's record on BAIPA has opened him up to criticisms from pro-life advocates that he supports "infanticide."
BAIPA was a piece of legislation that mandated that infants born alive after failed abortions should be provided with medical treatment. While in the Illinois Senate, Obama repeatedly opposed the measure.
"As a state senator, Barack Obama wouldn't even stand up for the rights of infants born alive during an abortion," charged the Republic VP nominee. "These infants - often babies with special needs - are simply left to die."
Obama's voting record on BAIPA has dogged the Democratic candidate throughout his campaign for the presidency. In the past Obama has repeatedly responded to criticism by claiming that he would have voted for the bill if a clause that appeared in a federal version of the bill, making clear that the bill would have no effect on Roe v. Wade, was included. However, it was subsequently revealed that Obama voted against a version of the bill that did include the clause - a fact that Obama has since acknowledged is true.
"Asked about this vote, Senator Obama assured a reporter that he'd have voted 'yes' on that bill if it had contained language similar to the federal version of the Born Alive Act," Palin told Johnstown supporters. "There's just one little problem with that story: the language of both the state and federal bills was identical."
Given Obama's support for the most extreme pro-abortion measures, Palin accused the senator of having long ago "left behind even the middle ground on the issue of life."
"He has sided with those who won't even protect a child born alive. And this exposes the emptiness of his promises to move beyond the 'old politics.'"
She concluded, "A vote for Barack Obama would give the ultimate power over the issue of life to a politician who has never once done anything to protect the unborn. As Senator Obama told Pastor Rick Warren, it's above his pay grade."
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