Paul D Baumann, editor, Commonweal magazine: What do you expect to accomplish with the "common ground" group you've organized on the abortion issue?
Obama said the group was preparing a memo that would be delivered to him "soon" which would describe areas of common ground and areas of "irreconcilable differences."
The president said that he expected it to be fairly straightforward to achieve consensus on a strategy of helping young people not get pregnant in the first place, on the importance of adoption as an option, and caring for pregnant women so it is easier for them to support children.
But, he added: "I personally think that combining good sexual and -- or good sex and moral education needs to be combined with contraception in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I recognize that contradicts Catholic Church doctrine, so I would not expect someone who feels very strongly about this issue as a matter of religious faith to be able to agree with me on that, but that's my personal view. We may not be able to arrive at perfectly compatible language on that front."
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