Abortion activists hope that Vice President Joe Biden will portray campaign rival Paul Ryan as an extremist for being pro-life,  but that might be a tall order for a former senator who supported a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

In 1982, then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., voted for the Human Life Federalism Amendment, which contradicted Roe by declaring that “the right to an abortion is not secured by this Constitution.” The Florida Catholic Conference of Bishops recalls the Hatch Amendment as a “turning point in [the] pro-life cause.”

Biden even bragged about this vote in a letter to one Ms. Juanita Sonnier. “Many thanks for taking the time to inform
me of your concern over the controversial issue of abortion, specifically Senate Joint Resolution 110, the Hatch Amendment,” Biden said in the letter. “As I am sure you are aware, on Thursday, March 11, 1982 the Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of this measure. I voted for this resolution, which passed by a vote of 10-7.”

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Fast forward to this week: “We hope the Vice President Biden makes [Ryan] answer for his extreme anti-woman, anti-family agenda,” Emily’s List President Stephanie Schriock told The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard.

The National Right to Life Committee, which produced these Biden documents, explained their contemporary significance. “Even if Biden has changed his mind on some or all of these issues – it is one thing to say one has changed one’s mind, quite another to assert that one’s previous position was ‘extreme’ or constituted a ‘war on women,”‘ NRLC argued.