JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin charged into the culture wars Saturday in Pennsylvania, painting Sen. Barack Obama as a radical on abortion rights. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Saturday. The stop comes amid news that Palin violated Alaska ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report for the bipartisan Legislative Council concluded Friday. Ethics woes aside, Palin focused her attention on abortion -- an issue that rallies the conservative base but some say alienates independent and women voters. "In times like these with wars and financial crisis, I know that it may be easy to forget even as deep and abiding a concern as the right to life, and it seems that our opponent kind of hopes you will forget that," Palin told a crowd in Johnstown. "He hopes that you won't notice how radical, absolutely radical his idea is on this, and his record is, until it's too late."
@highlight
Sarah Palin, Barack Obama both campaign Saturday in Pennsylvania
@highlight
Palin hammers Obama on the abortion issue in Johnstown
@highlight
Obama acknowledges McCain's efforts to "tone down the rhetoric"
"A vote for @placeholder is a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and that we need on this issue of life," she said.