hopefully this puts down the other rumor about the 5th child. that one had me a bit jumpy, i confess.

Wouldn't the right thing been to have taught the kid how to keep her britches on? Or to have given her enough education about her body to have avoided an unwanted pregnancy to begin with?

I think this reflects poorly on Palin's parenting. She's coming off on the same level as Britney Spear's mom if you ask me . . .

The deed has been done. The test of character when things are difficult, is the courage to take the harder road when it is the right road.

We all know of those who knew their body and still responded "What!?!"

This is a plus. As Mark Steyn points out in his recent best seller, America Alone, if our western civilization is demographically to survive in the increasingly “hostile to the west” islamic world — and not end up like the sinking European populations — these are the precise people (the Bristol Palins’) we should thank for increasing their progeny.

Every family has one; I have a niece who had a kid out of wedlock at 17. The key is, how does the family handle it? Does the kid trust her parents enough to tell them or do they go secretly to a clinic? Do the parents browbeat the kid into an abortion or have some courage and tell them "We'll help you, but its your kid, and now it's time to be an adult." Or do they make another responsible decision and give the child up for adoption?

Our society views children as an inconvenience; life sometime has its own plans. I was the fifth child in my family, thoroughly unplanned. I'm glad my mother didn't view me as a late-in-life inconvenience to be gotten rid of by a quick trip to the clinic. The child does not plan his arrival and cannot be blamed for it. Yet that is precisely whom our society holds accountable. The inconvenient child gets the death penalty.

It is a dangerous time for souls to come into the world. "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned . . . "

Kids should be off limits until they choose to enter the political arena as adults. None of us are perfect parents, none of us were perfect kids.

Inquiring minds want to know if Chelsea ever had an abortion...

I vehemently disagree with Chai-rista. You can teach a child right and wrong until your blue in the face. That child can still go out and make a bad decision. Human nature is funny like that.

You can count my family as having gone through this too. 17 y.o. niece, decides to keep the kid (not marry the dad) and today she's married with a second kid on the way and our family has a great kid.

If the worst thing that happens to your family is that you have to set another place at the dinner table, things are going well.

Chai-rista has a good point. Not necessarily Sarah Palin, but too many parents don't talk to their children seriously either about abstinence or birth control. At least not until their child comes to them and announces that they are pregnant. D'uh!

I give kudos to the Palins for loving and supporting ALL their children, and I definitely hope Obama can keep his campaigners in line on this. In the meantime, the rest of us could use this as a wake-up call to check in with our kids ...