It is a position that certainly appeals to the conservative base of the GOP, but will it be enough to earn John McCain the trust of the many different strains of conservatives he has alienated over the years?

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record), looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned," the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who "strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench."

The landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade gave women the right to choose an abortion to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court has narrowly upheld the decision, with the presence of an increasing number of more conservative justices on the court raising the possibility that abortion rights would be limited.

Social conservatives are a critical voting bloc in the GOP presidential primaries.

Frankly, this is a pretty mainstream position. Indeed, among legal scholars there is great sentiment that the decision is so flawed that it ought to and will be overturned.based upon its poor legal foundation. And as is often pointed out, all the reversal of Roe will do is place the issue of abortion back in the hands of the elected representatives of the people -- where it rested for the first two centuries of American independence.