Teenage Pregnancy, GOP-Style

See Slate's complete Republican National Convention coverage.

On Sept. 1, Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement through the McCain campaign confirming that their 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant.

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Over the weekend, a rumor had raced through the Internet alleging that the presumptive GOP nominee for vice president was not the mother of the youngest Palin child, Trig, born with Down syndrome on April 18. The gossip had it that Trig was actually Palin's grandchild. The rumor, which was untrue, appears to have been a garbled version of the previously undisclosed revelation that Palin's teenage daughter will give birth in four months. Bristol and the child's father, whom Palin identified by only his first name, Levi, intend to marry.

Sen. McCain's campaign told Reuters that Palin disclosed her daughter's condition to McCain before her selection. It released the statement (below) to rebut the "Democratic ticket, pulling them down in the mud." The Palins request that the media "respect our daughter and Levi's privacy."

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