Although a conservative blogger once dubbed him “the most pro-abortion candidate ever,” Obama has received support from two pro-life Democratic members of Congress. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. and former congressman Timothy Roemer are promoting Obama to their constituents as uniquely able to “lower the temperature and foster a sense of common ground” on the issue.

As the Washington Post notes, “Obama has never supported a single measure that would curtail access to abortion — even under controversial circumstances.” According to a National Right to Life Committee voter’s guide, he has voted against parental notification laws and objected to the Supreme Court ruling against partial birth abortion.

But speaking at the Compassion Forum Sunday night, Obama said he “absolutely” thinks pro-life and pro-choice groups can find common ground. Calling abortion a “wrenching choice,” Obama seemed measured in his response, tailoring his message to resonate with pro-life voters.

Cal Thomas called Obama audacious and characterized any pro-life outreach as a “crafty political move.” But according to Jim Wallis in Christianity Today this week, the abortion debate in American as gotten “stale,” amounting to little more than a political litmus test both parties trot out in election years. Calling the push for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion “endless, and meaningless,” Wallis said he wants real solutions to reduce the abortion rate. If the Democrats will acknowledge it’s a moral tragedy, as Obama himself said at the forum, Wallis is optimistic they could deliver the much-needed change.

Frank Schaeffer suggests that despite his pro-choice position, Obama’s worldview is fundamentally pro-life because it celebrates the “intrinsic worth of each individual” and focuses on saving the planet and providing a good life for everyone. According to the argument that abortion deprives the unborn of their intrinsic worth, Schaeffer’s logic has some flaws, but it indicates a leap that some pro-lifers are willing to make.

Obama’s list of pro-life supporters isn’t necessarily an indication that people have changed their attitudes about abortion so much as their attitudes about the best way to approach the debate. Supporting an unapologetically pro-choice candidate may be taking a huge risk, but it’s a risk some pro-lifers seem willing to take – perhaps because, as Dan McCarthy notes, they think that three decades of supporting Republicans hasn’t panned out.

Usually associated with social conservatives and the Republican Party, the pro-life movement is gaining new ground among Democrats who want to make America a two-pro-life party system.

“We really need pro-life Democrats,” Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life of America, told WoW. “Without having a pro-life majority, we’re not going to get anything done.”

According to Day, who wrote the book Democrats for Life: Pro-life Politics and the Silenced Majority, the Democratic Party has not always been staunchly pro-abortion. Twenty-five years ago, Democrats held a majority in the House with 125 of their 292 seats belonging to pro-life Democrats. The party’s pro-abortion position developed gradually as abortion-rights activists used what they had learned in the anti-war campaign to change the party platform.

Day said for the first time in 2007, the Democratic Party lent its full support to pro-life candidates, and the number of pro-life Democrats in the House and Senate increased for the first time in 25 years. There are seven pro-life Democrats in the House. Pro-life Democratic Senators include Bob Casey, Jr. and Harry Reid, Senate Democratic leader. In 2008, pro-life Democrats in Colorado and Minnesota will present pro-life language at local caucuses with the hopes of changing the party platform –a goal Day admits will be difficult to accomplish.

“There is still a sense out there that you can’t trust pro-life democrats,” Day told WoW. “If you go to a local caucus meeting and you say that you’re pro-life, people have been told not to come back. People don’t think they’re really Democrats.”

For Day, a pro-life stance is part and parcel of the Democrats’ human rights’ legacy. “The Democratic Party is very good on most of the life issues, human rights, death penalty, wages adequate for families to have enough food to eat,” Day said. “This is the next big fight that we can win, the battle for the unborn and providing civil rights for the unborn.”