Biden says he no longer supports the Hyde amendment, thus reversing his longstanding position



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"If I believe that health care is a right, as I think, I can no longer support an amendment that would subordinate it to the postal code of someone," he said.

The Hyde amendment is a four-decade old ban on using the federal government's money for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in abeyance. danger.

Mr Biden's campaign on Wednesday revealed that he was still supporting the Hyde Amendment, a position that places him to the right of all other 2020 Democracy candidates, as well as to Hillary Clinton. and at the party platform in 2016.

Biden said Thursday night to the crowd that he had changed opinion because lawmakers of the Republican state had enacted "extreme laws in flagrant violation of constitutional rights" protected by the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case Roe v. Wade, making access to abortions more difficult for women who can not afford the procedure or travel to get it.

He stated that he did not apologize for his earlier support for the Hyde amendment.

"But the circumstances have changed.I have been working on the final details of my health care plan, along with those of this race, and I have struggled to overcome the problems. that Hyde presents now, "said Biden.

He said he wanted to achieve "universal coverage" and "provide the full range of health services that women need" by continually developing Medicaid and offering a "public option" for people to subscribe to Medicare.

"I can not justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the opportunity (…) to exercise their right protected by the Constitution," he said.

"People, times have changed, I do not think these guys will give up," Biden said, referring to Republicans.

Biden had been criticized by organizations defending women's health and abortion advocacy, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

His 2020 Democrat opponents also strongly criticized Wednesday, when NBC News reported for the first time that despite Biden's video telling an ACLU volunteer in South Carolina last month that the Hyde's amendment "could not stay," his campaign claimed that he supported the measure.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said, during her campaign in Indiana, that the Hyde amendment denied the right to abortion to "people who do not have money" and that "it does not go at all".

"Women's access to reproductive health care should not depend on the money they have, we need to repeal the Hyde amendment," tweeted California Senator Kamala Harris.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted: "Reproductive rights are human rights, period, they should not be negotiable for all Democrats."

The Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, is committed on Twitter to repeal the Hyde amendment.

"The vice president is absolutely wrong on this point, which will deprive low-income women and women living in communities of color of the necessary health care," CNN's former representative told reporters. from Texas, Beto O 'Rourke.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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