WASHINGTON, June 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Leading US Democrat Joe Biden, facing
major pressure from several rivals chasing the party’s 2020 presidential
nomination, on Thursday reversed his longstanding opposition to using federal
funds for abortions.
For decades the former vice president supported the controversial provision
that many in his party are now aiming to overturn.
The 40-year-old Hyde Amendment makes it illegal for US tax dollars to be
spent on abortions except in rare cases when a pregnancy endangers the life
of the mother, or when the pregnancy results from rape or incest.
As a US senator for more than 30 years, Biden — a 76-year-old Catholic who
is personally opposed to abortion — voted dozens of times in support of the
amendment.
But with several Republican-led state legislatures recently moving to
restrict abortion rights, and as Biden endured fierce rebukes from Democratic
rivals this week after his campaign confirmed that he still supported the
ban, the party frontrunner may have been jolted into reconsidering his
position.
“Women’s rights and health care are under assault in a way that seeks to
roll back every step of progress we’ve made over the last 50 years,” Biden
wrote on Twitter.
“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an
amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code.”
Critics say the Hyde Amendment unfairly discriminates against low-income
women because it forbids coverage for abortions in public insurance programs
like Medicaid.
Abortion — and a potential challenge to Roe v Wade, the 1970s US Supreme
Court decision which enshrined the nationwide right to terminate a pregnancy
— has emerged as a hot-button issue ahead of next year’s elections between a
Democratic nominee and Republican President Donald Trump.
“The Hyde Amendment should not be American law,” Senator Elizabeth Warren
said Wednesday, adding she would “lead the fight” to repeal it.