Vox: https://www.vox.com/2019/6/5/18653660/joe-biden-hyde-amendment-bernie-sanders-2020
Joe Biden says his views on abortion have evolved over time, but this week his campaign said he still supports a ban on government funding for abortion in most cases.
The Biden campaign told NBC News that the candidate supports the Hyde Amendment, the network reported on Wednesday. That's consistent with his votes over the years. He voted several times in the Senate to ban federal funding for abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.
Supporters of the amendment argue that taxpayer funding shouldn't be used to pay for abortions. But opponents argue that the amendment, which bans Medicaid coverage for most abortions, creates a two-tiered system where middle-class and affluent patients can access the procedure and poorer patients cannot.
The Hyde Amendment, first passed in 1976, bans federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the life of the pregnant patient. The exceptions for rape and incest were added in 1993, when Bill Clinton was president.
As a senator in the 1970s and '80s, Biden supported the federal funding ban and opposed efforts to add the rape and incest exceptions, according to NBC.
The Hyde Amendment, which is popular in polls, was long regarded as untouchable by Democratic candidates. But more recently, thanks in part to grassroots activism arguing that abortion needs to be not just legal but affordable, candidates have begun calling for repeal.
Hillary Clinton did so in 2016 and a number of Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, and Warren, have done so this year. Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Biden's position on Wednesday.
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