Biden does flip-flop on abortion amendment

Associated Press

ATLANTA

After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions.

Biden's reversal came after rivals and women's rights groups blasted him for affirming through his campaign aides that he still supported the Hyde Amendment. With the shift, Biden hopes to limit any damage from women's groups and progressives who already are skeptical about whether a 76-year-old, more centrist white man can be the party standard-bearer in 2020.

Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta, Biden didn't mention the attacks he's endured this week but tacitly agreed with his critics who cast the Hyde Amendment as another abortion barrier that disproportionately affects poor women and women of color. He said new restrictions in Republican-run states like Georgia and Alabama justify his shift.

"I've been struggling with the problems that Hyde now presents," Biden said, opening a speech dedicated mostly to voting rights and issues important to the black community with an explanation of a significant policy shift.

"I want to be clear: I make no apologies for my last position. I make no apologies for what I'm about to say," he explained, arguing that "circumstances have changed."

Biden, a Roman Catholic who has wrestled publicly with abortion policy for decades, said he voted as a senator to support the Hyde Amendment because he believed that women would still have access to abortion even without Medicaid insurance and other federal health care grants. Now, he says, there are too many barriers that threaten that constitutional right.