Obama Reiterates Support For Abortion Rights During Press Conference

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 01 May 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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In a press conference marking his 100th day in office, President Obama said that he supports abortion rights because he believes that women are in a "better position" than members of Congress or the president to make decisions regarding abortion, the Washington Post reports. Obama said that some individuals suggest that abortion is "simply an issue about women's freedom and that there's no other considerations," adding that he believes it is "an issue that people have to wrestle with and families and individual women have to wrestle with. The reason I am pro-choice is because I don't think women take that ... position casually" (Shear et. al, Washington Post, 4/30).

Obama also said that the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade, is not the "highest legislative priority." He said that the "most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on the areas" on which both sides of the abortion debate can agree. Obama said that he indicated "consistently during the campaign" that he aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, "particularly if we can reduce the number of teen pregnancies, which has started to spike up again." He added that a White House task force is working with abortion-rights supporters and opponents "to see if we can arrive at some consensus on that" (Press conference transcript, Associated Press, 4/29).

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