SIDEBAR: Obama gingerly breaches abortion, gay marriage topics

By Gonzalo Espariz Jun 14, 2008, 1:04 GMT

Washington - Using 'very cautious' language but without changing his ideas, US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama spoke up for legalized abortion and gay marriage during a recent meeting with Protestant pastors from around the country.

Reverend Luis Cortes - one of 42 ministers who met with Obama behind closed doors in Chicago on Tuesday - told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa in an interview that Obama was 'very cautious in his answers.'

'He is very good, it showed that he knows very well what he is saying,' Cortes noted.

The meeting came as the presumptive Democratic nominee girds to do battle against the apparent Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, for the general elections in November.

On abortion, Cortes said that Obama expressed personal opposition to the voluntary termination of pregnancy but added that 'making it illegal does not mean eliminating it, but would rather just make poor people suffer more than those with money.'

'He personally would rather there were no abortions at all, but he understands that changing the law is not the answer,' the reverend said.

Abortion has been legal in the United States since 1973, although each state can add some restrictive clauses on the subject within guidelines set by the US Supreme Court.

The senator from Illinois also spoke with care on the thorny issue of gay marriage, Cortes said.

Obama 'understands that the word marriage is a theological construct and understands that churches do not want to change the word,' Cortes explained. But at the same time, Obama spoke as a leader of civil society who would agree that marriage 'is a right that has to be given' to homosexuals.

Same-sex marriage is currently only legal in the states of Massachusetts and California, although these unions are not binding at the federal level.

Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire have a legal construct that allows same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual marriages without calling them the same. Other states grant homosexual couples more limited rights.

Obama's comments reaped varying responses among pastors.

'More than half the group did not like his answers, particularly those who are most conservative,' Cortes said.

Liberal pastors were more receptive, and others just focused on specific issues of interest to the communities they represented, the reverend noted.

While outgoing US President George W Bush had full support from the conservative Protestant voting block, neither McCain nor Obama can lay similar claim to either the conservative or liberal religious voter. Both candidates are expected to be scrambling for their backing in the coming months.