Obama says that the decision as to whether to terminate a pregnancy or not "is a woman's responsibility and choice to make in consultation with her doctor and her pastor and her family." [3]

During the April 2007 Democratic debate Obama said:

I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy...

Now, there is a broader issue, though. And that is can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in the circumstances where they've got to anguish over these decisions.

Those are areas where I think we can all start mobilizing and move forward rather than look backwards. [4]

In July 2007 Obama addressed Planned Parenthood:

[T]here's a lot at stake in this election, especially for our daughters. To appreciate that all you have to do is review the recent decisions handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States. For the first time in Gonzales versus Carhart, the Supreme Court held—upheld a federal ban on abortions with criminal penalties for doctors. For the first time, the Court’s endorsed an abortion restriction without an exception for women’s health. The decision presumed that the health of women is best protected by the Court—not by doctors and not by the woman herself. That presumption is wrong. ...

With one more vacancy on the Court, we could be looking at a majority hostile to a woman's fundamental right to choose for the first time since Roe versus Wade and that is what is at stake in this election. ...

We know that five men don't know better than women and their doctors what's best for a woman's health. We know that it's about whether or not women have equal rights under the law. We know that a woman's right to make a decision about how many children she wants to have and when — without government interference — is one of the most fundamental freedoms we have in this country. We also know that there was another voice that came from the bench — a voice clear in reasoning and passionate in dissent. The voice rejected what she called, "Ancient notions of women's place in the family and under the Constitution. Ideas that have long been discredited." One commentator called the decision in Gonzales, "An attack on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's entire life's work." And it was. But we heard Justice Ginsburg and we know what she was saying. She was saying, "We've been there before and we are not going back. We refuse to go back."

We know, we know it's not just one decision. It's the blow dealt to equal pay in the Ledbetter [v. Goodyear] case, it's the blow dealt to integration in the school desegregation case, it's an approach to the law that favors the powerful over the powerless—that holds up a flawed ideology over the rights of the individual. We don't see America in these decisions—that’s not who we are as a people. We’re a country founded on the principle of equality and freedom. We’re the country that's fought generation after generation to extend that equality to the many not restrict it to the few. We’ve been there before and we’re not going back.

I have worked on these issues for decades now. I put Roe at the center of my lesson plan on reproductive freedom when I taught Constitutional Law. Not simply as a case about privacy but as part of the broader struggle for women's equality. Steve and Pam will tell you that we fought together in the Illinois State Senate against restrictive choice legislation—laws just like the federal abortion laws, the federal abortion bans that are cropping up. I’ve stood up for the freedom of choice in the United States Senate and I stand by my votes against the confirmation of Judge Roberts and Samuel Alito.

So, you know where I stand. But this more is than just about standing our ground. It must be about more than protecting the gains of the past. We’re at a crossroads right now in America—and we have to move this country forward. This election is not just about playing defense, it’s also about playing offense. It’s not just about defending what is, it’s about creating what might be in this country. And that’s what we’ve got to work together on.

There will always be people, many of goodwill, who do not share my view on the issue of choice. On this fundamental issue, I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield. [5]

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Does McCain support the overturn of Roe v. Wade?

Has McCain changed his position on stem cell research?

Does McCain oppose the GOP platform's call to ban abortion without exception?

Get the facts at McCain Fact Check.

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[1] Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Action Fund Endorses Barack Obama. July 8, 2008.

[2] NARAL Pro-Choice America. Sen. Barack Obama's Record on Choice

[3] Transcript. Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum. CNN. April 13, 2008

[4] Transcript. South Carolina Democratic debate transcript MSNBC. April 26, 2007

[5] Transcript. Barack Obama before Planned Parenthood Action Fund. (transcribed by Laura Echevarria.) July 17, 2007