The Rev. Jim Wallis, noted evangelical leader of the religious left, says his friend Barack Obama and the DNC should add “abortion reduction” to the party’s platform, according to ABC News.

“Abortion reduction should be a central Democratic Party plank in this election,” Wallis told ABC, “I’ll just say that flat out.”

Wallis said he pitched the idea to DNC chair Howard Dean last week; no word on Dean’s response. Wallis also said the Rev. Tony Compolo, another progressive evangelical, who is on the party’s platform committee, supports the plank and plans to push for it at the DNC convention in Denver in August.

Wallis thinks the commitment will help Obama reach centrist evangelicals, who are already leaning his way over the environment and poverty.

“There are literally millions of votes at stake,” Wallis says.

I’m not sure Obama appreciates his friend putting him on the spot like that. If Obama says “no,” Wallis has just handed an Ace to the religious right; if he says yes, the senator may alienate his party’s strong contingent of progressive women.

This law professor may have way out:

“Substitute “unintended pregnancy” for “abortion” and I’d be right with this program. It doesn’t make sense to talk about reducing abortion, when unintended pregnancy is the root problem. You could reduce abortions without reducing the rate of unintended pregnancy at all. But what kind of a social policy is that? Talking about reducing abortions will only fuel the demonization of abortion and the women who choose it.”