DALLAS - Barack Obama and John McCain got a chance during their third presidential debate on Wednesday night to directly address their respective bases when they were asked about abortion.

Moderator Bob Schieffer, who noted that Democrat Obama supports the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe vs Wade decision that grants women a constitutional right to an abortion, while the Republican McCain opposes it, asked: “Could either of you ever nominate someone to the Supreme Court who disagrees with you on this issue?”

Both candidates said they would not apply ”litmus tests” if they were to select justices for the top U.S. court, whose nine members are currently almost evenly divided between conservatives and liberals.

“I would consider anyone in their qualifications.  I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications.  But I certainly would not impose any litmus test,” McCain said.

Obama said: “I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided … what ultimately I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision.”

Abortion is one of the most emotive and partisan issues in America. Most Democrats support abortion rights; the Republican Party is opposed to abortion rights and its conservative Christian wing is especially vocal and activist in this regard.

It is an issue that can engergize the bases of both parties, but amid worsening economic news and a plunging stock market, neither candidate has been paying it much attention.

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 Photo credit: Reuters/Gary Hershorn
 
  

Cracked. Shattered. Whatever. Forget the glass ceiling, policy trumps gender in the race for the White House as far as Hillary Clinton is concerned.

“Of course it’s exciting to have a woman on the ticket,” Clinton said in a CNN interview when asked about the vice presidential candidacy of Republican Sarah Palin.

“But that in and of itself is not enough reason … and really no one will shatter that ceiling until we have a woman serving as president or vice president,” she said in the interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Clinton, a New York senator, saw an opportunity to be the first U.S. woman president slip away with her Democratic presidential primary loss to Barack Obama.

When Palin joined the Republican ticket as John McCain’s running mate, she credited Clinton with leaving 18 million cracks in the so-called glass ceiling — a reference to the number of votes she won in primaries before dropping out of the race.

But the two women have little else in common, especially on the divisive issue of abortion rights, which Palin opposes.

“I am going to be supporting women and men with whom I agree, who I believe have the right policies and the right ideas about what’s best for America,” said Clinton, who is campaigning for Obama in several states before the Nov. 4 election.

Pressed on Palin’s candidacy and wanting to see a woman in the White House, Clinton was firm.

“I would like to see the very first woman in the White House who I agree with and who I think has policies that would really fulfill the goals that I have for our country,” she told CNN.

It was clear the governor from Alaska was not that woman.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

DALLAS - The Democratic Party remains staunchly behind a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

But the platform statement on the issue that will be adopted at the party’s presidential nominating convention in Denver later this month has been well received by some pro-life Christians, who applaud its emphasis on abortion reduction.

On a conference call Tuesday with journalists, several leading evangelical and Catholic activists welcomed the stress on abortion reduction as the “common ground” between those who support abortion rights and those who oppose them (camps which describe themselves as pro-choice and pro-life).

A draft of the platform circulating last week — which insiders say has had few changes — said “The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court ruling granting women a constitutional right to abortion) and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion.”

But it also recognized the role of health care, education and “caring adoption programs” in reducing “the need for abortions.”

The language seems to be more of a change of emphasis than a radical change from past positions.

But it does strike a chord with some centrist evangelicals and Catholics who feel the pro-life and Republican Party aim of overturning Roe V. Wade has been futile and has not reduced abortions or offered support to low income women who may choose to terminate their pregnancies for economic reasons.

Joel Hunter, a prominent evangelical mega-pastor from Florida who describes himself as a “completely pro-life” conservative Christian and registered Republican, hailed the shift in emphasis as “courageous and historic.”

Jim Wallis, a leading figure on the religious left, said he saw it as “sorely needed common ground.”

“We could truly make reducing the abortion rate in America a non-partisan issue and a bipartisan cause. It is a common-sense approach,” he said in an earlier statement.

Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, also welcomed the move.

Their positive reaction to the platform’s language points to a broader shift among U.S. evangelical and other Christian movements to a wider “agenda of life” that includes a helping hand to the poor.

Not everyone in the anti-abortion rights camp is happy with the language. For many conservative Christians abortion is the taking of an innocent life, period.

Tom McClusky, the vice-president of government affairs at the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties, told Reuters that he didn’t really see how the Democratic Party’s take on the question had changed.

Abortion remains one of the most divisive and emotive issues in U.S. politics and it is a divide that has tended to follow partisan fault lines.

John McCain, the Republican candidate for the Nov. 4 presidential election, has long opposed abortion rights; his Democratic opponent Barack Obama strongly supports abortion rights.

How the Democratic shift will affect the presidential election is difficult to judge. Will it give Obama a gap to poach some support from evangelical Republicans who are lukewarm on McCain? Or will it harden the resolve of abortion rights opponents?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Pro-life signs outside U.S. Supreme Court after anti-abortion protest Jan. 22)