Today’s partial-birth abortion ruling complicates lives for the Democratic candidates. The GOP is probably 90some percent opposed to partial-birth abortion; for them it’s a no-brainer*.

Even Rudy liked it.

For pro-choice candidates, the interest groups (NARAL, etc.) are likely to declare this decision the first step on a slippery slope, the camel’s nose in the tent, etc., and thus they will declare this decision disastrous.

Do the Democratic nominees concur, and indicate that they oppose legal restrictions on partial-birth abortion?

Or do they say, “well, like most Americans, I’m divided on abortion, I think it’s terrible, and partial-birth abortion particularly so, so I find myself in agreement with this decision…”

Obama’s made his choice – notice he says nothing about the legality of the partial-birth procedure itself, and instead jumps straight to the “what this might lead to argument.”

(By the way, one would think the Obama campaign could or would update its web site to include a press release from sometime this month. As of 1:09 pm EST, the last release is from March 30.)

Edwards at least couches his opposition on the lack of a provision for exceptions for “the health of the mother” – even though the argument that a partial-birth abortion could be necessary to preserve the physical health of the mother is, uh, hotly disputed, to say the least.

UPDATE: Hillary weighs in:

“This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman’s right to choose and recognized the importance of women’s health. Today’s decision blatantly defies the Court’s recent decision in 2000 striking down a state partial-birth abortion law because of its failure to provide an exception for the health of the mother. As the Supreme Court recognized in Roe v. Wade in 1973, this issue is complex and highly personal; the rights and lives of women must be taken into account. It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.”

There you have it, folks. The Big Three of the Democratic party stand foresquare in defense of keeping partial-birth abortion legal.

* Some readers wonder if “no-brainer” is an appropriate term when discussing partial-birth abortion. Fine, it’s an “obvious choice,” or what have you.