Local church officials believed this statement would give the repeal effort in Massachusetts the cover of Vatican acceptability.
This incident gave the repeal campaign a renewed push and as the campaign to change the law gathered pace, more women who have been forced out of the country to have an abortion are telling their stories.
But it hardly would guarantee passage of the initiative, given the result of past repeal efforts.
Advocates for gay rights have said they have little hope that Mr. Obama will actively seek a repeal, given the political climate and the priority of other issues.
It is unlikely, however, that there are enough votes for an immediate repeal, given the number of conservative Democrats who support Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his call to complete the study first.
In a conference call on Tuesday, Winnie Stachelberg, the senior vice president for external affairs at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, told reporters that the liberal think tank has identified ten senators who have said they might be willing to vote for repeal given the chance to review the Pentagon reports.
But given the political impossibility of clean repeal, the commitment to making low-income homes more fuel-efficient, among other things, was enough to earn Edwards' vote for the Dominion-backed bill that passed Friday.
Now, Capitol Hill and the White House have given the banks what they want, repealing this prohibition in Congress' spending bill for the next year.
In the past year, every Republican leader in Congress and on the Presidential-campaign trail has promised to repeal both laws if given the chance.
"We place the chances of outright repeal at virtually nil, given the Democratic Senate and president," he said in a note to investors on Wednesday.
