Biden Anti-Choice?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I was debating politics with an avowed Bernie supporter (who is prepared to refuse to vote if Bernie is not the nominee) and one of her friends jumped in and claimed that Biden may be anti-choice and would not nominate pro-choice justices when I tried to argue the importance of voting for the Supreme Court in November. I've seen a few random articles circulating among the Bernie fandom crowd on my social media feeds about stuff that Biden may or may not have done or said about Abortion decades ago, but, as far as his current campaign website goes, he purports to want to defend a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in his discussion of ACA.

https://joebiden.com/healthcare/

Biden is, admittedly, not my first choice in this primary but with Warren gone, he's the one I'm settling with (not here to debate) but I could never imagine him nominating anti-choice Judges, esp. to the Supreme Court. Anybody got any sourcing or exposition on his position on abortion rights? And I'm not interested in going back 30-40 years either. I want to know where he stands TODAY.

[drray23]

1. Biden was never anti choice.

He stated multiple times that he supports the right of women to choose.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. I didn't think so either

There's some kind of story- which I'm fairly sure was stripped of context or was misleading clickbait- that Biden once supported overturning Roe and/or allowing states to decide their abortion laws.

[thesquanderer]

13. He has a more complicated history than that. But he is solidly pro-choice today...

...which is plenty good enough for me.

But if you're curious:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/joe-biden-abortion-hyde-amendment.html

Where does Biden stand on abortion?
He supports abortion rights — but he hasn’t always. Over his nearly 50-year career, he has swung back and forth, grappling with what he saw as a conflict between abortion rights and his Catholic faith.

When he became a senator in 1973, he argued that the Supreme Court had gone “too far” in its Roe v. Wade ruling. Later, he shifted to say that abortion should be legal but the government shouldn’t fund it. That was his position until this month, which brings us to the Hyde Amendment.

For decades, Mr. Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion under programs like Medicaid. As recently as June 5 {2019}, he said he still did.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/us/politics/biden-abortion-rights.html

With an anti-abortion president, Ronald Reagan, in power and Republicans controlling the Senate for the first time in decades, social conservatives pushed for a constitutional amendment to allow individual states to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that had made abortion legal nationwide several years earlier.

The amendment — which the National Abortion Rights Action League called “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights” — cleared a key hurdle in the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 1982. Support came not only from Republicans but from a 39-year-old, second-term Democrat: Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“I’m probably a victim, or a product, however you want to phrase it, of my background,” Mr. Biden, a Roman Catholic, said at the time. The decision, he said, was “the single most difficult vote I’ve cast as a U.S. senator.”

The bill never made it to the full Senate, and when it came back up the following year, Mr. Biden voted against it. His back-and-forth over abortion would become a hallmark of his political career.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

17. This is probably what they're looking back at

But it seems like it should be considered totally irrelevant NOW though. As always, the history is waaaaay more complicated and nuanced than some people like to make it. As long as he's pro-choice now and has a favorable rating from PP, then I'm good. Though ever since I've been following politics, I've never known him to be anti-choice.

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. A disingenuous response.

You could favor banning abortion in all but the most extreme circumstances and still call yourself "pro-choice". It's a sliding scale.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. More lies from the Sandernistas?

Biden is pro-choice. No question.

[mzmolly]

3. He's pro-choice

and rated favorably by Planned Parenthood.

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/presidential-candidate-profiles/joe-biden

[TwilightZone]

5. Her "friend" is clueless. Link to PP:

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/presidential-candidate-profiles/joe-biden

[PatrickforO]

6. My understanding about Biden is that as a devout Catholic, he personally, for him and

his own family, is against abortion, but he recognizes and supports the fact it is the law of the land.

I have never been under the impression that Biden would nominate anti-choice judges.

[videohead5]

7. They made the same argument 4 years ago

I argued with someone that was a Bernie supporter on this very same web site four years ago. They were not sure Hillary would pick a pro-choice supreme court judge. They will rationalize anything for an excuse not to vote.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. And here we are 4 years

having the same debates over Joe Biden, who very likely will be the nominee at this point.

[Bev54]

8. He is most definitely pro-choice

[NCProgressive]

9. Brainwashing and gaslighting can do serious harm to stupid people's brains

[mcar]

11. No. He's not

This is a lie.

[MiniMe]

12. Biden is Catholic, but he is pro-choice

[Turin_C3PO]

14. He's pro-choice.

He has a very good rating from Planned Parenthood.

[Happy Hoosier]

16. Biden is catholic... so...

He is personally anti-abortion, but he does not believe his beliefs should be imposed on others, so he supports choice.

[LanternWaste]

18. We can go to Planned Parenthood for his platform position on this.

Supports birth control. Check.

Supports abortion access. Check.

Biden pledges to repeal of the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule. Check.

Supports health equity. Check.

Supports comprehensive and age appropriate sex education that includes science based prevention methods.
Check.