It took Joe Biden two days of criticism, but he reversed course on the Hyde Amendment on Thursday. “I’ve been struggling with the problems that Hyde now presents,” the former vice president said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta, and the result of that struggle is that he opposes the policy, which, as a ban on federal funding, prevents women on Medicaid and Medicare from accessing abortion services.
”I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to (access) their constitutionally protected right,” Biden said. “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.”
But while Biden reversed course after criticism, “I want to be clear: I make no apologies for my last position. I make no apologies for what I’m about to say.” It’s just that “circumstances have changed” due to state-level abortion bans. Those bans, of course, were passed before Biden’s campaign affirmed his support for Hyde earlier this week.
Good for Biden for coming around to the right position. But if he’s going to make a habit of coming out for the wrong thing and having to be pressured into changing his position to support the right thing, he might want to learn to apologize, or at least ditch the defensive “I’m not apologizing” stuff.