The senator from Illinois was trying to clarify earlier remarks when he said that he doesn't believe "mental distress" should be considered a sufficient exception to bans against late-term abortions, The Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

"My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously," Obama added.

ABC News legal correspondent Jan Crawford Greenberg wrote on her blog that Obama's statement leaves open the possibility that he supports significant narrowing of abortion rights.

Greenberg is a University of Chicago-trained lawyer.

"So Obama, it seems to me, still is backing away from what the law says," Greenberg writes. "And backing away from a proposed federal law (of which he is a co-sponsor) that envisions a much broader definition of mental health than the one he laid out this week."