Those Democrats want to avoid another government shutdown.
THE PROGNOSIS
Former vice president Joe Biden. (CJ Gunther/EPA-EFE/REX)
Former Vice President Joe Biden is joining the growing ranks of Democrats calling for the overturn of a longstanding ban on federal funding of abortion, after he spent decades supporting the restrictions. Biden’s sudden shift last night illustrates the party’s growing intolerance for any moderate views on the hot-button topic.
As my colleague Colby Itkowitz reports, Biden announced the change during a speech yesterday at the Democratic National Committee’s African American Leadership Council summit in Atlanta. The presidential candidate told the crowd that, in an environment where the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion is under attack in GOP-led states, he could no longer support a policy that limits funding.
“We’ve seen state after state including Georgia passing extreme laws,” Biden said. “It’s clear that these folks are going to stop at nothing to get rid of Roe.”
“Circumstances have changed,” he said.
Biden was under intense pressure from abortion rights groups and nearly every one of his Democratic opponents in 2020, who want to erase the ban known as the Hyde Amendment.
“It seemed like he heard a lot of feedback and opened his mind to thinking about this in a different way,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told Colby after Biden announced his new position. Hogue declined to discuss any conversations she had with Biden or his campaign, Colby writes.
Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen:
Happy to see Joe Biden embrace what we have long known to be true: Hyde blocks people—particularly women of color and women with low incomes—from accessing safe, legal abortion care. Thank you to our RJ partners for leading the charge in repealing this discriminatory policy. https://t.co/G1JrSK6Jbm
But it’s notable that the Democrats actually in a position to ditch Hyde — those on Capitol Hill who control the financial coffers — aren’t ready to risk a government shutdown over it.
The House is scheduled to start debate on Wednesday on an appropriations package funding the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies for the 2020 fiscal year — and it includes the Hyde Amendment, which says federal funds can’t be used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or if the woman’s life is threatened.
The Democrats who presided over the writing of the measure, Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and HHS subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), have both said they ultimately want to scrap the Hyde language. They’re among a growing crowd of Democrats that is backing away from a rare area of bipartisan agreement on the hot-button topic of abortion.
But both women know well that picking a fight over Hyde right now — with Republicans in control of the Senate and the White House — could easily spiral into an all-out war between the two parties, making it impossible for Congress to keep the government funded. It’s because of Hyde, which allows Medicaid to pay for abortions in only the most dire circumstances, that Democrats and Republicans have been able to fund HHS for decades without getting mired in abortion fights.
“In this current political situation, it would be hard to remove [Hyde],” said Evan Hollander, communications director for House Appropriations Democrats, saying the committee leaders instead tried “to minimize the number of controversial policy changes that might imperial passage of bills and risk a government shutdown.”
Nearly every member of Congress running for president has voted multiple times for spending bills that include Hyde language. Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Cory Booker (N. J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) all voted for a bill passed in September that funded HHS along with the departments of Labor, Defense and Education. So did Democratic Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and Seth Moulton (Mass.), as well as former congressman Beto O’Rourke (Tex.).
But those realities didn’t stop many of the contenders from piling on Biden, after his campaign said Wednesday that he still backed Hyde. Nearly every major candidate issued a scathing statement attacking the position, declaring there is no middle ground on the question.
Speaking Wednesday night on MSNBC, Warren said Hyde means low-income women — presumably those on Medicaid — aren’t able to access abortions.
“Women of means will still have access to abortions,” Warren said. “Who won’t will be poor women, will be working women, will be women who can’t afford to take off three days from work… we do not pass laws that take away that freedom from the women who are most vulnerable.”
The New York Times’s Lisa Lerer:
In March, Biden’s staff told me they had no comment on Hyde beyond his decades-long position of support. Last month, he told a woman on a rope line he was against it. This week, his campaign said he misunderstood the Q & did support it.
