Joe Biden reveres course on abortion funding after backlash over Hyde Amendment stance

Joe Biden reversed his position Thursday night on a key issue to Democratic voters, revealing he no longer supports a measure that prohibits using federal funds to cover most abortions.

The former vice president's campaign had said he backed the law, known as the Hyde Amendment, as recently as Wednesday. His decision to throw out his long-held support of the measure came amid mounting backlash from within the Democratic Party and highlights the challenges the old-school liberal faces as the presumed frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination in 2020 in a primary field, which features a host of progressive candidates.

His reversal was abrupt, particularly since Biden has wrestled for decades with his views on abortion, ascribing his reluctance to his Roman Catholic faith. In a speech at a gala hosted by the Democratic National Committee in Atlanta, the former vice president did not mention the mounting pressure or criticism he has received in recent days, instead crediting the change as part of developing an upcoming comprehensive healthcare proposal.

Biden began his speech by affirming his support for Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, and noted that he, "like many" in Congress, supported the Hyde Amendment for years, because he believed women would still have access to the procedure without Medicaid and other federal health grants. Now, he said, the ability to obtain an abortion through other means — Planned Parenthood clinics, for example — is being whittled by Republicans.

"I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to . . . exercise their constitutionally-protected right," Biden continued. "If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's ZIP code."

Biden, who is looking to pitch a centrist approach in an increasingly progressive primary field, explained that the Hyde Amendment is another barrier to abortion access, which disproportionately affects poor women and women of color.