Only Obama didn't say "Dunno."

His answer was more like "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, limit unwanted pregnancies. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Roe vs. Wade. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, pro choice. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah etc. etc. etc."

No teleprompter and Obama is lost.

What is the distinction between a baby receiving human rights and when life begins? Under Roe, they are effectively the same thing.

C'mon, this is the great orator, the silver tongued master of motivation. Then when asked to answer a question extemporaneously, a question for which he should have a pat answer, he spits out some blah blah blah and ends with the trite, "its above my pay grade." We're not talking about some trivial question on procedure. We're talking human life.

You want to be President of the United States of American, my friend. Nothing should be above your pay grade. Better he had just said, "I don't know." But that might have been a bit dishonest since he seems to believe that women should have the right to end pregnancies well into the third trimester (or at least he makes no movement to prevent such).

It's a political question for Obama, not a religious one. Hence, a trite political answer.

Apparently Rick Warren was also underwhelmed.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/235/story_23581_1.html

It doesn't seem like such a bad answer to me. Don't get me wrong, I hope Obama loses to McCain, but Obama basically said:

I don't know when life begins. (I agree the expression "above my paygrade" is poorly chosen).

I support Roe v. Wade and the right to an abortion, even late-term if the mother's life is in danger.

We should do what we can to minimize unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions.

Seems like a pretty decent response and most Americans agree with him on this one.

Interesting read. Thanks for posting.

I thought the vast majority of those getting abortions were doing it to minimize unwanted pregnancies. Also, why would Obama want to reduce the number of abortions? Does he see it as an issue of the health of the mother? Or is he really concerned about unborn children?

Maybe you don't know, but when pro choice people call for a reduction in the number of abortions, I wonder why. Seems like a pretty nifty way to get rid of a problem. What's wrong with it?

maybe like the church, he considers it distasteful, but not the taking of a human life.

Noah, surely you're not trolling are you? Even the most ardent pro-choicers realize that abortion is an incredibly painful decision for most women, and that for most women it's best if the decision never needs to be made. Further, some feminists feel that the very prevalence of abortion is due in part to the fact that women's preventative care needs are not being met. They want to see the numbers drop due to improving quality of life of women of childbearing age. But I imagine you already knew all that.

This is the only aspect of Obama's abortion platform that I agree with him on: we all have a vested interest in reducing the need for abortions in this country, and if we work together toward that end we're a lot more likely to accomplish it than if the lifers and choicers just keep bickering all the time.

Huh? Obama probably thinks that contraception, adoption, or a woman deciding to keep her baby are preferable to abortion. You disagree? You're not one of those guys that thinks birth control is the same thing as abortion, are you?

Just because you believe in the legal right to abortion doesn't mean you think abortion is a good thing. And for the record I am a Libertarian and I think abortion is evil and disgusting. Not sure how I got into this argument.