Joe Biden has given two different answers on a key abortion rights question in recent weeks, and the more recent answer, the official one coming from his campaign, is the wrong one. When asked by an ACLU volunteer in May, Biden said “yes” to the question of whether he would abolish the Hyde Amendment. But this week his campaign told NBC News that Biden still supports the policy, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion services except in cases of rape, incest, or a danger to the life of the mother.
By contrast, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren have all cosponsored legislation to end the Hyde Amendment and, responding to the Biden news, Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted that his Medicare for All plan would end Hyde.
“To support the Hyde Amendment is to block people—particularly women of color and women with low incomes—from accessing safe, legal abortion. As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund executive director Kelley Robinson said in a statement. Stephanie Schriock, the president of EMILY’s List, sounded a similar note, saying that “Americans overwhelmingly support women’s rights to make their own health care choices and Democrats made repealing the Hyde Amendment part of our 2016 platform. We hope that Vice President Biden will reconsider this position and what it means to millions of women. There’s simply too much at risk.”
NBC News also reports that, as a senator, Biden repeatedly voted against rape and incest exceptions in bans on Medicaid abortion coverage and as late as 1994 sent constituents a letter bragging about having voted for federal funding for abortion services “on no fewer than 50 occasions.” In the 1970s, Biden believed that Roe v. Wade had been wrongly decided, though he now says “I refuse to impose my religious beliefs on other people” and is committed to protecting Roe.