When Bristol Palin, daughter of former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, announced on Thursday on her blog that she was pregnant with her second child, she anticipated that she would get attacked, writing that she was making the announcement sooner than she wished due to the “constant trolls who have nothing better to talk about.”
The fact that the reaction by liberal sites like Gawker to Palin’s news is predictable does not make it any more acceptable. “Bristol Palin Makes Great Argument for Abortion in Baby Announcement” reads the headline.
Ever since Sarah Palin hit the national stage during the 2008 election, the left has mocked her family for their Christian beliefs. When Bristol became pregnant with her first son, Tripp, during the campaign, she was attacked mercilessly and called a hypocrite.
The Gawker article denigrates Bristol for ignoring that “she has any choice in the matter,” as the pro-abortion left likes to characterize their view of what Christians like the Palins believe is murder of an innocent unborn child. The fact that Bristol previously made a choice to not turn a teen pregnancy into what she believed was another sin, is anathema to those who made Wendy Davis into a national hero for filibustering against a law banning late term abortions.
Gawker also quotes Bristol’s blog post at length and jumps on her acknowledgment that this was tough news for her to share. “Honestly, I’ve been trying my hardest to keep my chin up on this one… I know this has been, and will be, a huge disappointment to my family, to my close friends, and to many of you,” she wrote.
Gawker’s response: “Yikes! It sounds like nobody, least of all Bristol, wants her to have this baby?”
That is not what Bristol wrote at all. To the contrary, she ended her post by saying that she was not looking for lectures or sympathy, but that she was putting her family first and trusting in God:
But please respect Tripp’s and my privacy during this time. I do not want any lectures and I do not want any sympathy.
My little family always has, and always will come first.
Tripp, this new baby, and I will all be fine, because God is merciful.
Having called off her wedding to U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer in May, this will also be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy for Bristol. And like before, she has the support of her family and the resources to provide for the child. Why should Gawker care if she wants to have the baby? She is not asking them to take care of it.
The left says they women to have “reproductive freedom” and “choices,” but when the choice is life, their ugly attacks reveal it’s not quite so simple.
Bristol Palin chose life. And they hate her for it.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.