Obama Calls for 'Open Minds' on Abortion

Barack Obama addressed some 12,000 people attending graduation exercises at Notre Dame while hundreds of antiabortion protesters gathered outside the front gate of the university. The president got several loud, sustained ovations during his speech. When people attempted to interrupt him at the start the crowd came to his defense with boos and then chants. One protester yelled "Stop killing our children” and another "Abortion is murder!" and "You have blood on your hands." Some graduates taped a yellow cross and yellow images of baby feet to the top of their mortarboards.

Obama called for "open hearts, open minds" in the pursuit of "common ground" and referred to "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose” and asked the audience:

"Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?

Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions and cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness."

Obama's upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court justice is likely to cause the issue to heat up.

Norma McCorvey was among those arrested. She was the "Jane Roe" in the Roe v. Wade case that the Supreme Court used to legalized abortion. She is now against the procedure.