Former Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin recently came into the defense of her son Trig after atheist Richard Dawkins made the following statement regarding children with Down Syndrome.

"Ireland is a civilized country except in this 1 area. The area was abortion, which until last year was illegal in all cases. Yes, it is very civilized [994 human beings with Down's Syndrome were deliberately killed before birth in England and Wales in 2012]. These are fetuses, diagnosed before they have human feelings," wrote Dawkins on Twitter on August 20.

"Yes. Suffering should be avoided. [The abortion] cause[s] no suffering. Reduce suffering wherever you can. Apparently I'm a horrid monster for recommending WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS to the great majority of Down Syndrome fetuses. They are aborted."

In addition, Dawkins made the following statement to a person on Twitter who told him that she "honestly [does not] know what I would do if I were pregnant with a kid with Down Syndrome. Real ethical dilemma."

"Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice," wrote Dawkins via Twitter.

As a result, Palin also went on social media to express her thoughts regarding aborting children with Down Syndrome.

"Mr. Dawkins, I'd let you meet my son if you promised to open your mind, your eyes, and your heart to a unique kind of absolute beauty," wrote Palin on her Facebook page on August 21.

"But, in my request for you to be tolerant, I'd have to warn Trig he must be tolerant, too, because he may superficially look at you as kind of awkward. I'll make sure he's polite, though!"

On the same day, Dawkins issued an apology, despite the fact he stands by his previous comments.

"Obviously the choice would be yours. For what it's worth, my own choice would be to abort the Down fetus and, assuming you want a baby at all, try again. Given a free choice of having an early abortion or deliberately bringing a Down child into the world, I think the moral and sensible choice would be to abort," wrote Dawkins in his blog.

He went on to say, "I personally would go further and say that, if your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child's own welfare..."

The former Oxford Professor continued to express his views regarding the issue of aborting Down Syndrome kids inside the womb.

"You would probably be condemning yourself as a mother (or yourselves as a couple) to a lifetime of caring for an adult with the needs of a child," wrote Dawkins.

"Your child would probably have a short life expectancy but, if she did outlive you, you would have the worry of who would care for her after you are gone. No wonder most people choose abortion when offered the choice. Having said that, the choice would be entirely yours and I would never dream of trying to impose my views on you or anyone else."