The Jan Greenburg post, which the swamp links to, gets to the real problem with Obama's "refining":

In clarifying his remarks, Obama said this afternoon that he has "consistently" said health exceptions are required for laws banning or seriously restricting abortion. But he then goes on to try to carve out exceptions to the exceptions, and he ends up suggesting, again, he would support more limits on abortion than the law currently allows.

After thirty years of conservative courts a woman's right to choose is already too restricted. The 2003 Federal Abortion Ban, and the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that it is constitutional, dealt a serious blow to efforts to preserve choice. No pro-choice politician advocates restricting the right, we are fighting to preserve and expand it.

is different from "mental illness" or "mental disease".

If you're so worried about Obama's position, are you saying we should vote for McCain, who wants to overturn Roe altogether?

While the fringe groups continue to duke it out over this issue, I'm wondering if anyone gives a good God damn what the majority of Americans think and want?

Because, like gun control, the majority of Americans would like some BALANCED policy on abortion -- unlimited choice before the fetus is viable -- restrictions once it is.   MAke sense?  Because it does to most of the rest of us -- perfect GD sense.  And it is to the growing frustration of reasonable Americans that the uncompromising on both ends of the spectrum insist on pushing their arguments on the rest of us.

http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.ht m

Note how only 28% of Americans feel abortion should be legal in all cases, 17% feel it should always be illegal and a whopping 54% feel it should be legal in SOME CASES.  What might some of those conditions be?  Age of the fetus, exceptions for rape and incest, exceptions for the health of the mother, known birth defects.  

When it comes to "partial birth" or third trimester abortions, the Left is willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater, pardon the pun.  The vast majority of Americans DO NOT WANT third trimester abortions on demand.  And continuing to demand that, or demand it of a candidate to pass the pro-choice litmus test is counterproductive and absurd.    The majority doesn't buy into the idiotic "slippery slope" argument and they find the procedure itself abhorrant and intolerable except to literally SAVE the life of the mother.

When the first abortion wars were being waged, few envisioned the "partial birth abortion" or the day when premature infants would be saved and thrive at 24 weeks.  

Everyone is free to have an opinion on this, but I honesty believe Obama authentically shares the opinion of the MAJORITY on this one -- complete choice to a point, then tough restrictions once the fetus is viable.  That hardly makes him "anti-choice" or an enemy of Roe vs Wade. It makes him reasonable, compassionate and in-tune with the majority of Americans.  

As president, Barack Obama will not be crafting legislation. Whether it is for limiting choice or any other issue. What he will be doing is appointing SC justices. Do those of you complaining about two words used by Obama in an interview with a Christian magazine think it outweighs his entire political career and everything he has ever done or said about abortion before now? Do you think he will be appointing SC justices who will favor overturning Roe v Wade? Do you think McCain will be appointing justices who will support choice? Get a grip, people.

Barack Obama's position is as or more progressive than Russ Feingold's, who found the "serious adverse health consequences" exception to the so-called "partial birth" abortion bill to be "too broad."

Oh, goody.

I think where Obama has gone wrong these last few weeks is that he has been using Republican frames for a lot of issues.  Like this issue about late term abortions, which was such a brouhaha during the partial birth abortion fight.  The right wing held that the exception to the abortion ban should only be "the life of the Mother" not the health because they claimed that the term health was too broad a loophole that would lead to abortion on demand.

Obama just accepted that there was a loophole by discussing "mental distress, and "feeling blue".  I don't know if he deliberately did this or if he wasn't aware of the furious past battle over these terms.

There's an interesting article about this contraversy at Pandagon.net called  Don't reinforce the myth, which uncovers the truth behind the late term abortion myths.  An excerpt -

"Barack Obama has come out and opposed 3rd trimester abortions for "mental distress".  My initial thought was not to get too bunched up about it, because pandering actually ranks above food and water as necessities for a politician's continued existence, and this is a classic example of someone speaking out of both sides of his mouth.  Condemning late term abortions for "mental distress"---a term that conjures up images of women aborting at 7 months because their boyfriends left without a forwarding address, because they didn't realize that being pregnant meant you got fat, etc.---is like condemning purple stoplights.  It's great that you have that opinion and all, but you do know the thing that bothers you doesn't exist, right?  As Dr. B lays out, there's only two clinics in the entire country that do 3rd trimester abortions, and they have a long list of indicators you have to satisfy to get on the list, mostly direct threats to the mother's health or fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.  There are 3rd trimester abortions performed because of psychiatric indicators, but that's a much different thing than "mental distress".  At bare minimum, I'm guessing the women (or more likely girls in many cases) that have really late abortions because of mental distress have to have mental health problems so severe that they outstrip the trauma of having a 3rd trimester abortion, which is pretty serious in and of itself.  I don't think that it takes much work to imagine some of the horror stories that land women (or more commonly, girls) in Kansas or Colorado to get an abortion---being raped by relatives, suicide attempts, strenuous attempts at self-aborting that put them in danger of killing themselves.  Considering that Dr. George Tiller of Kansas has an extensive counseling program attached to his services, including support groups with other people who find themselves in the tragic situation of having to get later term abortions, I'm guessing that the mental status of his patients is well understood by the staff at the clinic."

When talking about late term abortions, it would be good for Obama to throw a light on the terrible real life situations of those few unfortunate women, rather than the pro-life myths created by the Rovian GOP machine.

Only if you love to dissect insects....