Obama's most controversial action on the abortion issue occurred when he was an Illinois state senator. Bills that would have required medical personnel to treat infants who survived abortion procedures came up several times during Obama's tenure in the Illinois state senate -- and each time, Obama opposed passage. He has since tried to defend his stand by claiming that the purpose of the Illinois bills was to overturn Roe v. Wade. And he's even argued that the Illinois legislation was unnecessary because "there was already a law in place in Illinois that said that you always have to supply life-saving treatment to any infant under any circumstances," as he told Relevant magazine last month.
In fact, the Illinois legislation was introduced after a Chicago nurse, Jill Stanek, came forward to describe her own experiences "where babies were being aborted alive and shelved to die in the soiled utility room" at Christ Hospital in a Chicago suburb. Stanek testified that she held one of the infants for 45 minutes before it died after being denied any medical treatment. Clearly the legislation was not superfluous, as Obama suggested. Moreover, Obama explained his vote at the time by complaining, "if we're placing a burden on the doctor that says you have to keep alive even a previable child as long as possible and give them as much medical attention as -- as is necessary to try and keep that child alive, then we're probably crossing the line in terms of unconstitutionality."
Polls show Catholics pretty evenly divided between Obama and McCain at this point -- with 45 percent favoring the GOP candidate and 44 percent favoring the Democrat. But Obama will have a difficult time wooing pro-life Catholics, given his record -- and a speech by a pro-life Democrat like Sen. Casey won't be enough to tip Catholics in his favor. And, of course, the biggest obstacle to Obama's outreach will be pro-choice Democrats, many of them feminists who supported Hillary Clinton.
As on so many issues, Obama risks losing the far left of his party if he moderates his own out-of-the-mainstream positions on abortion in order to win more centrist voters. Instead, he'll probably continue to talk out of both sides of his mouth on this issue and hope Catholic voters don't notice.