Sarah Palin Speaks to OH Right to Life, Donates Speaking Fee

Governor Palin spoke in Columbus, Ohio on Friday night at a Right to Life event. She was scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Cleveland, Ohio the following morning to help raise money for the Right to Life chapters of both cities.

Joe Hallett at The Columbus Dispatch reports:

About 12 weeks into her pregnancy for her fifth child, then Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin learned that she would have a second son.

She also learned that he would be born with Down syndrome.

A few months later, Palin learned that her teenage daughter, Bristol, was pregnant out of wedlock.

Those pregnancies, Palin told a Columbus audience last night, gave her empathy for the decision “women pregnant in less than ideal circumstances” must face and tested her own anti-abortion commitment.

“God, are you going to ask me to walk the walk and not just talk the talk of being a pro-life advocate,” Palin said she asked in prayer.

After both babies were born, Palin said, she and her family learned “that what seems like life’s greatest challenges in the moment are the greatest blessings in the end.”

Largely forgoing politics, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee told her intensely personal story in a 35-minute speech to more than 3,000 gathered for an Ohio Right to Life Society fundraiser at the Aladdin Shrine Center.

The event was closed to the media, but The Dispatch got access by buying a $40 ticket.

Showing her commitment to the cause, Palin said she would return her “generous” speaking fee to Ohio Right to Life after taxes are withdrawn. It was not known how much Palin was being paid for the speech.

[...]

Last night, however, Palin was focused on energizing anti-abortion advocates, saying groups like Ohio Right to Life “absolutely transformed, changed my life” by supporting her through trying times.

“The truest measure of a society,” she said, “is how we treat those who are unable to defend or speak for themselves.”

Viewed as a leading contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, Palin only briefly delved into politics, criticizing President Barack Obama for proposing a new version of health-care reform that would fund community groups without restricting whether they use money for abortions.

Referring to it as “Obamacare,” Palin said, “For me, it was the last straw.”

Palin was introduced by Chris Spielman, the former Ohio State and NFL football player, who movingly discussed the decisions he and his late wife faced while she was pregnant with their fourth child and undergoing cancer treatments. Stefanie Spielman lost her battle with breast cancer Nov. 19 at age 42.

Palin called Ohio “near and dear to me,” thanking Buckeye supporters “for the adventure my family’s going through.”

Palin, 46, has drawn big crowds of late in Columbus, including Nov. 20 when thousands stood in line outside the Borders bookstore on Sawmill Road for her autograph on Going Rogue, her best-selling autobiography.

She first appeared in the city Aug. 29, 2008, when she and Arizona Sen. John McCain shopped at the Buckeye Corner store on Lane Avenue hours after McCain introduced her as his running mate in Dayton.

After that, Palin held more presidential campaign events in Ohio than any other state and her political action committee, SarahPAC, has donated $5,000 and $3,500, respectively, to the Republican campaigns of John Kasich for governor and Rob Portman for U.S. Senate.

[...]

Today, Palin was to headline a lunch at the home of Cleveland-area insurance executive Umberto Fedeli to raise money for the Ohio and Cleveland chapters of Right to Life.