(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) supports the Democrats' Freedom of Choice Act, putting him in line with the American Civil Liberties Union on abortion and in conflict with pro-life groups.

Following a July 17, 2007 speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Obama was asked what he would do at the federal level, not only to ensure access to abortion but to make sure that the judicial nominees he might pick "are true to the core tenets of Roe v. Wade?"

"Well, the first thing I'd do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act," Obama said. "That's the first thing I'd do." (See video)

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) introduced the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) on April 19, 2007 -- one day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003 in Gonzales v. Carhart .

Nadler reintroduced FOCA in the House this session, but the bill has not made its way out of committee to the House floor for debate.

The American Center for Law and Justice said on its website that "(FOCA) would invalidate many federal, state and local abortion laws, including the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act."

"The Freedom of Choice Act would create an absolute right to abortion that would override any federal, state or local law that simply 'interfered with' that right, no matter how compelling the justification for the law," said the ACLJ.

The American Civil Liberties Union urges support for FOCA, stating on its Web site that the U.S. Supreme Court "walked away from legal precedent" when it upheld the ban on partial-birth abortions. "The decision undermines a core principle of Roe , that women's health must remain paramount, and instead allows politics and ideology to override legal precedent and medical expertise," said the ACLU.

But Denise M. Burke, vice president and legal director for American United for Life, sees FOCA as a real danger to women and the unborn.

"FOCA creates a new and dangerously radical 'right,' Burke wrote in a commentary about the legislation. "It establishes the right to abortion as a 'fundamental right,' elevating it to the same status as the right to vote and the right to free speech, which unlike the abortion license, are specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution."

"Critically, the U.S. Supreme Court has never (in Roe v. Wade or any subsequent decision) defined abortion as a fundamental constitutional right," Burke said. "FOCA goes beyond any U.S. Supreme Court decision in enshrining unlimited abortion-on-demand into American law."

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