The presidential campaign team for former Vice President Joe Biden said that the Democratic contender supports the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for certain abortions.
Biden has gone back and forth on this issue in the past. He told an ACLU volunteer last month that he would repeal the Hyde Amendment, and at a Tuesday rally in New Hampshire, Biden said he supports a woman’s right to have an abortion. Biden’s campaign aides nevertheless told NBC News for an article published Wednesday that he still supports the Hyde Amendment.
The campaign added that he would be inclined to repeal the amendment if Roe protections were in jeopardy, and added that Biden has never flip-flopped his position on Hyde language.
Biden is the sole Democratic candidate to have come out in support of the ban. Many 2020 front-runners, including Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, have all vowed to repeal the amendment.
Abortion rights groups, who say the law prevents low-income women from getting healthcare services, criticized Biden soon after the story broke.
“There’s no political or ideological excuse for Joe Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment, which translates into discrimination against poor women and women of color plain and simple,” NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said. “His position further endangers women and families already facing enormous hurdles and creates two classes of rights for people in this country, which is inherently undemocratic.”
Planned Parenthood added to the backlash, saying that Biden’s support piles on to the numerous abortion restrictions being implemented across the country.
“The Democratic Party platform is crystal clear in supporting the right to safe, legal abortion and repealing the Hyde Amendment, a position held by the majority of voters,” said Kelly Robinson, Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s executive director. “We strongly encourage Joe Biden to speak to the people whose lives are impacted by this discriminatory policy and reevaluate his position.”
Campaign aides told NBC that Biden has always been a strong supporter of abortion rights. However, he voted against a bill in 1977 that allowed Medicaid to pay for abortions in cases of rape or incest. That bill passed, but four years later, Biden voted to repeal it so that no Medicaid funding would pay for the procedure in any circumstance.
