Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defended her support for abortion rights at a faith forum on Sunday, saying the decision to have an abortion was not just about the "potential life" of a child, but the lives of others involved, including the parents.
Clinton and her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama, attended the event sponsored by Faith in Public Life, a nonpartisan resource center. The Democratic candidates were courting religious activists from across the political spectrum - a group with clout in U.S. politics.
Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in American politics and many of the evangelical Christian leaders and others in the audience were opposed to abortion rights for religious reasons.
Clinton was pointedly asked during the nationally broadcast forum if she believed life "begins at conception."
"I believe that the potential for life begins at conception..but for me, it is not only about the potential life, but the other lives involved," Clinton said, noting her Methodist faith and the denomination's own struggle with the issue.
She also reiterated her belief that while abortion should remain legal, it should also be safe and rare.
"Individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our open society," she said at the forum held on the campus of Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Obama, whose time on the show followed Clinton's, said "adoption is an option," but stressed that he remained committed to the support of abortion rights.
Also asked if he thought life began at conception, Obama said: "This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on..I don't presume to know the answer to that question."
