President Joe Biden said Tuesday evening he would sign congressional Democrats’ reconciliation bill with or without the Hyde Amendment, marking the latest shift in the president’s position on the anti-abortion policy.
REPORTER: Are you OK if the Hyde Amendment is in the reconciliation bill?
BIDEN: … I want to get the bill passed.
REPORTER: Would you sign it if the Hyde Amendment is in [the bill]?
BIDEN: I’d sign it either way.pic.twitter.com/lBSYlWKm8P
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 5, 2021
“I want to get the bill passed,” Biden said before trailing off, “I’d sign it either way, because the Hyde Amendment is, anyway …”
The remarks come the day after White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, “The president opposes the Hyde Amendment. That has not changed.”
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Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who supports the Hyde Amendment, recently said the reconciliation package is “dead on arrival” without the policy, marking another point of contention between centrist and progressive Democrats in reaching an agreement on the legislation.
The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to pay for elective abortion procedures. The policy was first enacted in 1976, three years after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. The provision has since been enacted on an annual basis in various pieces of legislation, whether the House majority was in the hands of Republicans or Democrats.
In the 1990s, exceptions to the Hyde Amendment were added for cases involving rape, incest, or a risk to the life of a mother. The amendment is not permanent law and must be attached to individual appropriations bills each year in order to take effect. Supporters of the amendment argue it protects the conscience rights of anti-abortion taxpayers who don’t want to contribute to the funding of abortion procedures, while opponents argue the amendment blocks low-income women from a legal procedure.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden called for an end to the use of the Hyde Amendment, a reversal of his previous stance on the policy, which he supported for decades as a senator. The reversal followed lobbying from liberal activists, who have increased efforts to revoke the policy.
On its website, Planned Parenthood Action Fund calls the Hyde Amendment “particularly harmful to people with low incomes, people of color, young people and immigrants.”
“For far too long, the United States has penalized low-income people seeking abortion — forcing those already struggling to make ends meet to pay the biggest proportion of her income for safe, legal care,” the website states.
As a senator, Biden walked a tightrope on abortion between his public policy positions and his Catholic faith. Then-Sen. Joe Biden once said the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision went “too far.” The 36-year Democratic senator from Delaware also repeatedly voted in favor of the Hyde Amendment, characterizing his support for the policy as consistent with a pro-abortion rights position.
“If it’s not government’s business, then you have to accept the whole of that concept, which means you don’t proscribe your right to have an abortion and you don’t take your money to assist someone else to have an abortion,” Biden told UPI in 1986.
Mallory Quigley, vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony List, told the Washington Examiner, “From day one, Joe Biden and his administration have worked to pay back the abortion industry that spent millions to elect him.”
“Biden used to support the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing, bipartisan policy that has saved nearly 2.5 million lives,” Quigley said.
Quigley argued Biden “and pro-abortion Democrats in Congress are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans, who oppose using tax dollars to fund abortion on demand up to birth — in fact, the Washington Post called out Rep. Jayapal for lying about this.”
The Washington Post recently gave Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, two Pinocchios for claiming most Americans oppose the Hyde Amendment.
Quigley praised Manchin for continuing to support the Hyde Amendment.
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“It is thanks to the courage of Democratic Sen. Manchin and pro-life Republicans standing resolute that Biden is now forced to face reality and try to walk back his extremism,” Quigley said. “Pro-abortion Democrats’ agenda hurts vulnerable women and their unborn children and is a major political liability.”
