Patrick Healy's "Political Memo" today in the New York Times portrays Sarah and Todd Palin as pro-choice by misreporting what the Alaska governor said recently about when she was pregnant with son Trig. Here's how Healy reported remarks Palin made Saturday during a campaign rally in Johnstown, PA:
Kathy Seals, a Republican voter who attended the Richmond event, said she admired Ms. Palin for “unabashedly speaking the truth, especially about life and the choices she made about her baby, Trig, and with her daughter.” Ms. Palin’s infant son, who has Down syndrome, is a frequent presence in his mother’s left arm as she shakes hands with supporters and moves from event to event.
Her references to her son are the most personal part of her speech, as she describes being scared when she first learned that the baby would have special needs. She and her husband, Todd, talked, prayed, reflected and ultimately decided to have the child.
“There are the world’s standards of perfection, and that’s what you see in some magazines, and then there are God’s standards,” she said at the Ohio rally Sunday night and repeated in Virginia on Monday. “God’s standards are the final measure. Every child is beautiful before God, and dear to them for their own sake.”
Healey's characterization of the remarks is inaccurate - and betrays a pro-choice mindset that is the default setting for most journalists in the elite media.
Here is what Palin actually said:
When I learned that my son Trig would have special needs, 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. But I can tell you a few things I’ve learned already.
Yes, every innocent life matters. Everyone belongs in the circle of protection. 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.
As for our beautiful baby boy, for Todd and me, he is only more precious because he is vulnerable. In some ways, I think we stand to learn more from him than he does from us. When we hold Trig and care for him, we don’t feel scared anymore. We feel blessed.
What Palin said was, in summary, when she and Todd learned that their unborn child, Trig, would have Down Syndrome, they were scared, yes, but they moved immediately to prepare for the challenge ahead, including through prayer:
"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."
Healy portrays it as the Palins struggling with the decision of whether or not to have Trig or abort him:
She and her husband, Todd, talked, prayed, reflected and ultimately decided to have the child.
In the elite media world, abortion is a considered a normal lifestyle choice and it considered unremarkable, even normal, that 90 percent of unborn Down Syndrome babies are aborted, so perhaps Healy can be forgiven for thinking the Palins, too, treated the unborn Trig's diagnosis of Down Syndrome as a moment of choice.
But the Palins are pro-life. Trig's diagnosis did not present them with a choice, it presented them with a challenge, one Sarah Palin says they met by relying on each other and their faith in God. The liberal pro-choice filter through with Healy and the New York Times views everything makes them unable to see this or report it correctly.
