Sen. Kamala Harris criticized Joe Biden for switching his stance on federal funding for abortion services during his current run for president.
Harris and Biden met on the stage of the second Democratic debate in Detroit on Wednesday night. Harris and other Democratic candidates for president began to pile on Biden, hitting his record on women’s issues. Harris focused on Biden’s past support for the Hyde Amendment, which bans using federal funds to pay for abortions.
“You made a decision for years to withhold resources to poor women to have access to reproductive healthcare, including women who were the victims of rape and incest. Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?” Harris asked, pointing out that he publicly changed his position after he began his run for president.
“This directly impacted so many women in our country. And I personally prosecuted rape cases and child molestation cases. And the experience those women have, those children have, and would be denied those resources, I think, is unacceptable,” Harris said.
Biden responded that he supported the Hyde Amendment as long as private organizations could step in to provide or fund abortions.
“Once I wrote the legislation making sure that every single woman would, in fact, have an opportunity to have healthcare paid for by the federal government, everyone. That that could no longer stand. I support a woman’s right to choose,” Biden said.
