Former President George W. Bush kicked off his media blitz this week for his memoir Decision Points.

What's drawing attention is the miscarriage his mother had and that was never spoken of until the book was released.

"She gave me permission to write about it," Bush told the "Today" show's Matt Lauer in his first interview since leaving the White House.

Bush was a teenager when he drove his mother, Barbara, to the hospital after she miscarried. He unexpectedly saw the remains of the human fetus that his mother saved to bring to the hospital.

"There was a human life, a little brother or sister," he recounted.

While Bush included that story in the book to help the public understand his relationship with his mother, he acknowledged that that moment also contributed to his pro-life view.

"No question that affected me, my philosophy that we should respect life," he told Lauer in the interview that aired Monday. "I was a pro-life president."

But again, he stressed that he wasn't trying to show the evolution of a pro-life point of view with the fetus story. He merely wanted to portray how he and his mom developed a relationship.

As Bush has highlighted before throughout his presidency, he talked about his problems with alcohol in his book and how his faith helped him to quit cold turkey just after his 40th birthday.

He confidently told Lauer that he hasn't had a sip of alcohol since 1986, even during his toughest moments in the White House, such as 9/11, Katrina and Iraq.

The purpose of the book, Bush said, is not to change perceptions but rather to provide data points for future historians. "It's a way for me to put the reader in the environment in which I had to make decisions," he told the Today co-anchor.

Moreover, "the book has been part of the transition process to private life," he added.

Two years out of office, Bush has remained out of the limelight while residing at his ranch in Texas. He told Lauer that he watches no TV but has an iPad where he reads some political news and the Bible.