Joe Biden’s past reveals a President who has clearly evolved in his thinking when it comes to the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
Earlier this week, a clearly agitated Biden told reporters that he was concerned about a leaked draft from the court indicating they are prepared to overturn the 1973 decision.
“Look, the idea, it concerns me, that we’re gonna, after 50 years, decide a woman does not have the right to choose, number one,” Biden said. “But, equally as profound is the rationale, and it remained the every other decision in the notion of privacy is brought into question.”
The new face of the pro-abortion movement went on to declare the draft decision, should it come to fruition, was “radical” in nature and pushed for the codification of legal abortion into law.
“At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law,” Biden said.
But earlier in his career, the Catholic Biden supported a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Roe and other pro-life positions.
President Biden said the leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling poised to reverse Roe v. Wade, if finalized, could undermine rights beyond abortion, including same-sex marriage. https://t.co/pvnWFdDn5J pic.twitter.com/7U2Ab2735K
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 3, 2022
Biden Many Years Ago Said Roe v. Wade Went ‘Too Far’
It’s a long evolution for President Biden who during his Senate years regularly touted his Catholic credentials.
In fact, in his early Senate career, Biden claimed the Supreme Court went “too far” in their Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights.
“I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far,” he said in a Washingtonian magazine interview in 1973. “I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
Can you imagine those same words uttered today?
His primary opponent in 2020, Bernie Sanders, even attacked him for it:
Two years after Roe v. Wade was decided Joe Biden said: “I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.” pic.twitter.com/6fWBGKBm2H
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 7, 2020
Joe’s Evolution
Furthermore, as the New York Times pointed out in a 2019 column, Biden voted in committee for an ultimately failed constitutional amendment in the 1980s that would have allowed states to overturn the decision.
The amendment was described by the National Abortion Rights Action League at the time as “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, where Biden was a ranking minority member, voted 10-7 for the resolution to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I’m probably a victim, or a product, however you want to phrase it, of my background,” Biden said at the time noting it was “the single most difficult vote I’ve cast as a U.S. senator.”
Who could forget that time that Joe Biden voted to overturn Roe v Wade? Even the New York Times remembers…https://t.co/YWQSyWYcfz
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 4, 2022
Biden also repeatedly voted for the Hyde Amendment which prevents federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger.
He flip-flopped on the matter during his campaign when radicals in his party demanded it.
.@JoeBiden just came out saying, after listening to women in the last 24 hrs, he WILL repeal the Hyde Amendment. I repeat, Joe Biden just came out against the Hyde Amendment.
Thanks, Joe. For listening to the American people. And thank you to the women who raised their voices. pic.twitter.com/O304t9cANV
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 7, 2019
Further cementing his radical evolution on abortion, then-candidate for President Biden in 2020 issued a statement indicating he would support abortion “under any circumstance.”
The statement came in response to a Supreme Court ruling striking down a Louisiana law requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
“Women’s health care rights have been under attack as states across the country have passed extreme laws restricting women’s constitutional right to choice under any circumstance,” he declared.
“Today the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that states cannot put in place laws that unduly burden a women’s right to make her own health care decision with her doctor.”
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From a resolution allowing states to overturn Roe v. Wade to insisting states have no right to do so. From saying Roe v. Wade went “too far” to demanding it is codified into law. From saying a woman doesn’t have the sole say over what happens to her body to saying a woman has the “right to choice under any circumstance.”
Conservatives warned that Biden wasn’t the moderate he once was or was being portrayed as by the media.
