EVANSVILLE IND. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told an antiabortion audience in Indiana on Thursday night that, "for a fleeting moment," she considered having an abortion after learning that her son Trig would have Down syndrome.

The experience, she added, "now lets me understand a woman's, a girl's, temptation to maybe make it all go away."

Ultimately, Palin said, she decided she had to "walk the walk" concerning her long-standing views against abortion. She avoided using the word "abortion" in her speech, preferring the phrase "change the circumstances."

"I had just enough faith to know that my trying to change the circumstances wasn't any answer," said Palin, the featured speaker before 3,000 people in Evansville.

Palin said she was traveling when she got the result of the amniocentesis. "There, just for a fleeting moment, I thought, I knew, 'Nobody knows me here. Nobody would ever know,'" she said.

Palin has long been a staunch supporter of abortion restrictions, and she pointed to her own "moment of doubt" to illustrate her support for carrying pregnancies to term, regardless of the circumstances.

She said she prayed during her pregnancy for the strength and compassion to love her baby. "The moment he was born, I knew for sure that my prayer was answered," she said.

Palin's frankness was greeted warmly by abortion opponents. It "shows she's a person who, when tried and tempted, will make the right decisions," said David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee.

WASHINGTON POST