In an open letter released Sunday, Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden urged him to “honor his commitment” and include the Hyde Amendment in Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package, writing “we feel used and betrayed.” The letter states:
“We are very disappointed about the COVID-19 relief package’s exclusion of the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding bipartisan policy that prevents taxpayer funding for abortion. We’re even more upset that the Biden administration is supporting this bill. As pro-life leaders in the evangelical community, we publicly supported President Biden’s candidacy with the understanding that there would be engagement [with] us on the issue of abortion and particularly the Hyde Amendment …We feel used and betrayed and have no intention of simply watching these kinds of efforts happen from the sidelines.”
During an Atlanta Democratic National Convention Committee event in 2019, Biden announced that he no longer supported the Hyde Amendment—which has been included on a bipartisan basis in federal spending bills since 1976. The Hyde Amendment restricts federal taxpayer dollars from funding many abortions.
“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code,” Biden said in May 2019 in a video posted by the American Civil Liberties Union.
This was a major reversal for the then-nominee, given Biden claimed in his 2008 book “Promises to Keep” that “I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than thirty years. I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding.” Even in June 2019, Biden’s campaign claimed he still supported the amendment.
Read the rest at: thefederalist.com
