Obama in 2004 Campaign Clip: An Unborn Child Is 'a Potential Life

President Barack Obama is known to be infamously pro-choice. Despite the fact that his views on abortion are public knowledge, a newly-surfaced clip featuring the president discussing abortion during a campaign event in 2004 is likely to rile pro-life advocates. In the video, Obama can be seen referring to an unborn baby as "a potential life."

The clip, which was posted by CBN News' David Brody earlier today and then covered by pro-life outlets like LifeSite.com, offers up some questions about what, exactly, Obama meant by "potential life" during his commentary.

"My basic view is that abortion is an extraordinarily difficult moral issue," he said. "As a Christian, I think that a fetus is not just a collection of cells. It is a potential life."

This comment is somewhat odd, considering the distinction Obama was openly making. While he went out of his way to differentiate a "fetus" from "a collection of cells," he -- at least in this clip -- doesn't appear committed to referring to the unborn as being definitively alive.

What came after this, though, was even more fascinating, as Obama attempted to differentiate his views between pregnancies that are pre-viable and those in which a child can live outside of the mother's body. Interesting, Obama also defends the right of the state to restrict late-term abortions.

“And I think that after viability it is legitimate for the state to prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is an exception for the mother’s life and health," he said. "Prior to viability, the problem is that this potential life is inside someone else’s body. It’s inside a woman’s body."

Obama said that he doesn't feel that "it is appropriate" for him to dictate what a woman should do with her own body. And since the child cannot live without the woman in a pre-viable state, the president declined to support pro-life sentiment during that phase of pregnancy.

Watch Obama make these statements, below:

This isn't the first clip to emerge featuring Obama speaking out about abortion. LifeSite.com recaps:

In August, Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack uncovered new audio of Obama, as a state legislator in Illinois in 2003, defending his position against a bill to provide medical support for babies who survived botched abortions. Obama essentially argues that there is no need for the law because he trusts abortion practitioners to provide medical care for the baby they unsuccessfully tried to kill in an abortion.

McCormack also uncovered an old video from 2003, when President Barack Obama was running for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, in which he defends his position favoring late-term abortions.

You can read more here about Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and their beliefs about contraception and abortion.

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Related:

• This Is Where Obama & Romney Stand on Abortion and Birth Control (And Why it Matters)