Herman Cain and his abortion problem with the GOP

Herman Cain's campaign has run into his first big snag as his position on abortion - that he is personally anti-abortion but believes it's "not the government's role to make that decision" - became clearer to conservative Iowa activists.

"That is a pro-choice position," Bob Vander Plaats, a social conservative leader in Iowa, told The Huffington Post. "It's not where we're at on the issue and it's not where a lot of caucus-goers are at on the life issue. They believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned."

Cain put out a statement late in the day on Thursday trying to clarify his position, but he still did not address the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, raising questions about whether he believes in the legal right to abortion despite his strenuous rhetoric in the past claiming to be, in his own words, "pro-life."