Evansville, IN (LifeNews.com) -- Sarah Palin captured the attention of nearly 3,000 pro-life advocates during a speech at what is billed as the largest Right to Life banquet anywhere in the country. The speech was the first major public event during 2009, the year following her Republican nomination for vice-president and one in which she may establish herself as a 2012 presidential candidate.

Palin criticized pro-abortion President Barack Obama for his rapidly growing pro-abortion record and she challenged the idea that abortion is the only solution for women -- even during a time of financial distress.

The possible presidential hopeful said that deciding when babies get human rights isn’t above her pay grade -- a reference to candidate Obama's answer to a question during a forum with evangelical Pastor Rick Warren.

Palin created a special closeness with the audience when she took time to look inward and focus on her own pro-life choices in life -- when she and her husband decided to give birth to a baby with Down syndrome in an era when 90 percent of babies with the condition die in abortions.

"The moment he was born, I knew that moment my prayers had been answered," Palin said. "Trig is a miracle. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity."

"I know for sure my son is perfect just as he is, made in the image of God," she said. “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on."

Palin hearkened back to the time when she had doubts about whether she could be a mother to a disabled baby -- something she said she could appreciate in other mothers.

“There just for a fleeting moment I thought, I knew, nobody knows me here. Nobody would ever know. I thought, wow, it is easy. It could be easy to think maybe of trying to change the circumstances. No one would know. No one would ever know," she said.

Ultimately, she told the audience it was time to "walk the walk" concerning her pro-life views.

“I had just enough faith to know that trying to change the circumstances wasn’t any answer,” she said.

Borrowing a page from former President Bush, she urged the crowd to work for a "culture of life" in America and said "Life is ordained, life is precious."

Palin also relied on her life experience as a mother of a pregnant teenager and said more teens who become pregnant should be encouraged to choose life over abortion. The Alaska governor also promoted adoption -- especially as a solution for women who are unable to have children and to reduce the number of abortions.

Palin and her husband, who accompanied her to the Vanderburgh County Right to Life dinner, also were with her Friday morning when she attended a breakfast for the group S.M.I.L.E., a nonprofit support organization for people with family members who have Down syndrome. Trig turns 1 on Saturday.

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