And that’s only the beginning of what’s wrong with the “Freedom of Choice Act” that Sen. Barack Obama promises to sign into law as soon as he takes office as president.

There’s no freedom for health care givers in it, no freedom for lawmakers to enforce law on the books now that would be wiped out by it, and no freedom for some women and unborn children caught in its sweeping facilitation of easy abortion. There’s also no choice for health care givers and medical providers who are morally or ethically opposed to abortion on demand, nor for states that now have the right to pass their own laws requiring informed consent or parental notification or health standards for abortion providers.

It’s a raw act of power disguised as enshrining a right. A right, by the way, that wasn’t in the Constitution but devised by a Supreme Court Justice (see post below).

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is legislation Obama has co-sponsored along with 18 other senators that would annihilate every single state law limiting or regulating abortion, including the federal ban on partial birth abortion.

The 2007 version of FOCA proposed: “It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.”

Obama made his remarks in a question-and-answer session after delivering a speech crystallizing for abortion advocates his deep-seated abortion philosophy and his belief that federal legislation will break pro-life resistance and end the national debate on abortion.

And where does John McCain stand on this?

After a meeting with Catholic leaders in Philadelphia last week, Sen. John McCain’s pro-life credentials are being questioned some pro-lifers who wonder if he would veto the Freedom of Choice Act, which if passed, would invalidate many of the laws that regulate abortion. Leaders who were present at the meeting informed CNA that they believe McCain would undoubtedly veto the bill…

Deal Hudson, one of the leaders present at the meeting, informed CNA that when it came to McCain vetoing FOCA, “Nobody asked him that question. My view is that, of course, he would veto it.”

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life agreed with Hudson, saying, “I have no doubt that he would veto it.”

“Moreover, it’s so extreme, I really don’t think it would ever reach his desk, even if the Democrats increased their numbers in Congress,” Fr. Pavone said.

But here’s a key distinction. This implies that as a bill (which existed in the House as H.R. 1964 and the Senate as S. 1173) this legislation would move on to the president.

Whereas Sen. Obama has promised that his first act would be to make it law. The question dangling out there (under the radar of mainstream media and most of the public) is whether Obama would do that by executive order, or through his party’s control of Congress as congressional legislation.

It’s a question that voters - of all beliefs - need to know. Let the candidates be clear on where they stand, and the votes fall where they may as a result.