Biden pushed to take executive action to save abortion rights.
But his past voting record makes that unlikely.
“We have Democrats that are doing the opposite, you know? They just aren’t fighting,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said. “When people see that, what’s going to make them show up to vote? We can’t just tell people, ‘Well, just vote — vote your problems away.’ Because they’re looking at us and saying, ‘Well, we already voted for you.’” — Washington Post
In his post this morning, brother Fred is rightfully all over Pres. Biden for going AWOL in the face of the Supreme Court's overturn of Rowe v. Wade.
Fred points to a letter signed by most of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, pressing Biden to “take immediate action” to protect abortion rights and outlining executive actions he could take to defend reproductive freedom.
In response, says Fred, he did nothing.
Knowing Biden’s past squishy voting record on the issue, I’m not surprised. In fact, doing nothing was probably a step up for him. As a senator, he often used his Catholic upbringing as a rationale (excuse) for voting to deny women their right to choose.
In 1981 for example, when Ronald Reagan was president and Republicans controlled the Senate, right-wingers pushed for a constitutional amendment to allow individual states to overturn Roe v. Wade.
According to the New York Times:
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 bill never made it to the full Senate, and when it came back up the following year, Mr. Biden voted against it. But his back-and-forth over abortion would become a hallmark of his political career.
He told an interviewer the following year that a woman shouldn’t have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
Biden voted to maintain a rule that prevented American military women from using their own money to get abortions in overseas military hospitals. In 1977, Biden voted against a compromise that would have allowed Medicaid funding of abortions in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother was a concern.
Biden later expressed approval for Roe v Wade. But until he was running for president in 2019, he supported the Hyde Amendment banning the use of federal funds for abortions. He actually has an amendment named after him, too, which forbids federal foreign assistance for biomedical research related to abortion.
Over time, Biden has been forced to accommodate himself to his party’s position supporting abortion rights. But his basic belief system remained intact.
“I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there’s human life and being, but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing, non-God-fearing people that have a different view,” he told the Catholic magazine America in 2015.
Since the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last week, more than a million people have taken to the streets in protest. The decision is being condemned by world leaders, including some at the G-7 Summit now taking place in Bavaria. Most polling shows strong grassroots support for abortion rights and many analysts see the growing popular resistance as an opportunity for Democrats to snatch victory from the jaws of their predicted defeat in the upcoming midterm elections. But it all depends on the party’s response.
Progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have outlined several actions they want to see Democrats embrace: Building abortion clinics on federal land. Funding people to seek abortions out of state. Limiting the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction or expanding its membership. Ending the filibuster.
As Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), put it:
“We can be bolder. We can have greater energy. We can do things that are outside the box. This is not the time for institutionalism or incrementalism.”
But Biden’s lack of action doesn’t bode well for the Dems or for us.
Fred’s conclusion: If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden for president in 2024 they’re nuts.
I agree.