In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama called on Americans to come
together and embrace "the God-given promise that all are equal." Coming from
our first African-American president, those words have particular resonance in
a nation that has struggled to fulfill its founding promise of equality for all.

They also have resonance for the crowd of hundreds of thousands that will
converge today on the National Mall for the 36th annual March for Life, a
peaceful, pro-life protest that commemorates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade,
the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion.

For these throngs of marchers, Obama's election is a mixed blessing. His
ascendancy proves that America can rectify longstanding injustices and expand
its circle of acceptance and protection to previously excluded groups of human
beings. Yet Obama's record on abortion, embryonic research and euthanasia
suggests troubling times ahead for the pro-life movement.

Intimations of those troubles began before Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, when
reports emerged that he would move swiftly in fulfilling his campaign promises
to lift the federal ban on taxpayer funding of embryo-destructive research and
authorize taxpayer funding of organizations that perform and promote abortions
overseas. Obama's prioritizing of those two promises suggests that he soon may
fulfill another, more radical abortion-related pledge: his vow to sign a
Draconian bill known as the Freedom of Choice Act.

FOCA, as the act is known, declares abortion to be a "fundamental right" and
decrees that no government may "deny or interfere with" that right or
"discriminate" against the exercise of that right when regulating or providing
"benefits, facilities, services, or information." In essence, FOCA demands that
government make no distinction between a woman's choice to bear her unborn
child and her choice to destroy that child. Both choices must be supported
equally by public policy and taxpayer dollars.

Although backers claim that FOCA merely codifies Roe, the abortion regime
imposed by FOCA would be far more extreme than our status quo. FOCA would
nullify virtually every existing federal, state and local restriction on
abortion, including laws related to waiting periods, informed consent, parental
involvement, physician licensure, clinic safety and the prohibition of specific
abortion procedures, such as the partial-birth abortion ban.

Stalled in committee for years, FOCA finally may become law now that one of its
former Senate cosponsors sits in the Oval Office. Obama told a Planned
Parenthood conference in 2007 that signing FOCA is "the first thing I'd do as
president" to ensure that his judicial nominees adhere to the core tenets of
Roe v. Wade.

Obama should reconsider that promise, lest he find himself at odds with the
vast majority of Americans who support restrictions on abortion. A 2008 Gallup
Poll found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe abortion should be
legal only under certain circumstances or illegal, while 28 percent believe
abortion should be legal in all circumstances. Americans disagree about the
degree to which abortion should be limited, Gallup pollsters noted, but
"polling finds a wide range of expressed support for laws limiting abortion."

Not only would FOCA erase nearly four decades of publicly supported limits on
abortion, it would gut conscience protections for health care workers and
institutions that refuse to participate in or refer for abortions. Catholic
bishops have warned that they will close America's 615 Catholic hospitals
rather than comply with FOCA's abortion-promotion requirements — a dire
scenario, considering that Catholic hospitals account for about one in every
nine American hospitals and serve a disproportionate share of our poor and
uninsured.

Obama faces enough challenges without inciting a domestic-policy battle over
abortion. Caught between his promises to the abortion lobby and his pledge to
the nation to seek common ground on divisive issues, Obama should heed his own
inaugural rhetoric and put national unity first.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.