Palin opposed sex-ed

Sarah Palin's personal story, and her views on personal morality, are at the core of her politics and of why she was nominated, and why she'd energized the conservative base.

Now, her daughter's pregnancy has cast her views on teenagers and sex directly into the spotlight.

Democrats noted, before and after today's announcement, that Palin took a hard line on a question in 2006 from the conservative Eagle Forum Alaska:

Q: Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools? SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

Palin also opposes abortion in cases like her daughter's, and in harder cases.

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby," she and her husband said in a statement. Unsaid in the statement is that Palin, based on her past views, would prefer that her daughter not be given a choice.

"I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor’s determination that the mother’s life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent’s life," Palin said in the same questionnaire.

When an Alaska court last year overturned the state's law mandating parental consent for minors to have abortions, Palin criticized the ruling and suggested parental consent be instituted by constitutional amendment.