White House ties pregnancy aid grants to 'common ground' abortion .

The grants support programs helping pregnant women and teen parents who are stressful to finish high school or who require help with health care, child maintenance and housing, HHS said. The grants can too be exploited to fight violence against pregnant women.

The Obama administration sought to tie the declaration to the President's attempt to dial down the polish wars over abortion, a destination he articulated in a lecture last year at the University of Notre Dame.

"These programs affirm President Obama's statement in his words at Notre Dame that we must begin 'reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoptions more available, and providing care and support for women who do run their kid to term,'" the Health and Human Services release said.

In his 2009 Notre Dame address, Obama called upon abortion rights supporters and opponents to "bring together to subdue the list of women seeking abortions."

Obama's appearance at Notre Dame, one of the country's premier Catholic institutions, drew protests from some abortion opponents.

The Pregnancy Assistance Fund was created by the health care bill that Obama signed in March.

In an e-mail announcing the formation of the stock to nonprofit groups last summer, the Function of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at HHS tied the first to the abortion issue.

"It was but a twelvemonth ago that President Obama gave a seminal speech at Notre Dame urging our country to obtain common land on the effect of miscarriage and unintended pregnancies," said the e-mail, which was obtained by CNN. ".This support is another critical measure in the President's vision for common ground."

Moderate religious groups hailed the fund's creation.

"Pro-life and pro-choice people have gotten behind it so it's a good first step at reducing abortion and providing funding for healthier babes and mothers," Kristen Day, executive director of the anti-abortion rights group Democrats for Biography of America, told CNN when HHS launched the stock in July. "Once we read how good this is we can go backwards and extend this program."

But conservative anti-abortion groups greeted the store more skeptically.

"This money is mandated for services for pregnant teens and women - violence prevention, vocational training," said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman for CitizenLink, the world policy arm of the evangelical group Focusing on the Family. "It would be inaccurate to characterise it as 'abortion common land' since it doesn't specifically address abortion."

The new health care law appropriates $25 billion for the Pregnancy Assistance Fund each year through 2019, according to HHS.