"Catholic" Joe

 

CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2020 / 09:30 am MT (CNA).-  

Former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, repeated his pledge to codify a right to abortion into federal law should the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision be overturned by the Supreme Court.

 

Speaking at an outdoor town hall event airing on NBC Monday, Biden was asked what he would do to protect “reproductive health rights” should Judge Amy Coney Barrett be confirmed to the Supreme Court.

“Number one, we don’t know exactly what [Barrett] will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe, and what the only thing--the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land,” said Biden. “That’s what I would do.” 

After decades of reservations about unrestricted abortion and Roe v. Wade, which he originally said went "too far," Biden committed during the 2019 Democratic primary contest to enshrining the full extent of the decision into law.  

Kirsten Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, responded to Biden's renewed pledge, saying it was "sad to see [Biden] move from recognizing the humanity of preborn children to pledging to make abortion the law of the land if elected."

"Pro-Life Democrats, we have to mobilize to make sure this does not happen if he is elected," Day said via Twitter.