Thank You, Bristol Palin, for Your Courage.

Bristol Palin, fellow Patheos blogger and daughter of former vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, announced on her blog that she is expecting a new baby.

I’ve read a few comments about her pregnancy on other blogs that disgust me. I won’t reiterate them here. I will just say this:

Thank you, Bristol Palin, for your courage.

You could have killed this baby and no one would be the wiser. That’s what many young women in your situation would have done. Instead, you chose to face the inevitable judgments and cruelties of people with an axe to grind about your politics, your opinions or about your mother, and give life to your child.

This took courage. It is a hard-core, pro-life-when-it-hurts commitment to your baby. You will be subjected to verbal trauma from the cruel people in this world. You may even have to face anger from your family because they, too, will get a dose of the same bitter treatment.

But you will never have to live with the miserable fact that you have murdered your own child to avoid hardship yourself. Your child will know that he or she has a mother who walked through sorrow and shame for his or her life. Your baby will never have to doubt how much he or she matters to you.

Bravo, Miss Palin.

And congratulations on your new baby. May you love and enjoy this child every day of what I hope will be your long and happy life.

Kathy Schiffer has written an excellent post about Miss Palin’s new baby here.