Democrat presidential front runner Joe Biden has mortgaged away one of his last remaining principles in a surrender to the unceasing sprint to the radical left demanded by the party’s base.
Joe Biden markets himself as a devout Catholic, and he occasionally voted for pro-life measures early in his Senate career. But as his presidential ambitions grew, he started touting the cliched “personally opposed but politically in favor” line, supporting legalized abortion in direct contradiction of explicit Christian teaching. However, he has always maintained consistent support for one pro-life measure, the Hyde Amendment — at least until now.
The Hyde Amendment is language added to congressional appropriations bills every year since 1976 that prohibits the use of federal taxpayer money to directly fund abortions. Since it is written into larger bills as a “rider,” it does not usually get directly voted on by Congress. A 2016 Politico poll asked voters about the Hyde Amendment directly, and only 36 percent voiced support for eliminating it. More general polls also consistently show that a strong majority of Americans do not want taxpayer dollars going towards abortion.
Nevertheless, up until this week, all of the major Democrat presidential candidates voiced support for eliminating the Hyde Amendment — except Joe Biden. He’s spent the last month flip-flopping on the issue, but now has made a definitive statement.
The whole controversy started after this exchange in May:
Our volunteer Nina asked Joe Biden whether, as president, he would lift the Hyde amendment, which bans federal insurance coverage of abortion.
He said yes. #RightsForAll pic.twitter.com/W4jT7RLNzN
— ACLU (@ACLU) May 8, 2019
In response, his campaign staff said Biden “misheard the question” and still supported the Hyde Amendment.
But after a pile-on by his Democrat rivals, Biden sold out and declared that he now opposes the Hyde Amendment after supporting it for decades.
It’s unclear what kind of candidate Joe Biden wants to be: the moderate, electable alternative to Donald Trump, or the same sort of elderly liberal firebrand as rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
But one thing is clear: Biden is so desperate to be president that he is willing to discard his core faith-based convictions at the age of 78. And that is a scary thought for the country – and for the soul of Joe Biden.
Photo credit: Walt Disney Television via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
