During the presidential debate on Thursday, President Joe Biden claimed (multiple times) that he supports abortion protections that were instilled by Roe v. Wade. If reelected, Biden said that he would “restore” Roe, which allows for abortions in all stages of pregnancy.
Former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, pointed out that people on both sides of the aisle thought that Roe was wrongly decided and that the issue of abortion belonged to the states. Biden disagreed with the sentiment. He also went on a tangent saying that we need abortion because “there’s a lot of women being raped by their brothers and sisters.”
Biden says we need abortion because "there's a lot of women being raped by their brothers and sisters." pic.twitter.com/uYghPRoHCe
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 28, 2024
However, in August 1986, Sen. Biden had a very different take about the Roe decision.
“There is an overwhelming, universal criticism by proponents of pro-choice and opponents of pro-choice that Roe v. Wade wasn't very well-reasoned. Most constitutional scholars do not offer that as an example of whether they’re for or against abortion, a decision that is well-written and well-reasoned, not the conclusion..It’s not offered as a way to write a decision,” Biden said.
In 1986 Joe Biden said that there is "overwhelming, universal criticism" from both sides of the debate that Roe v. Wade was not a well reasoned decision. pic.twitter.com/8ZxKjCEtVd
— MAZE (@mazemoore) May 4, 2022
Biden’s remarks were made during day two of Antonin Scalia’s confirmation hearing to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
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In 2019, the New York Times reported that Biden had a “changing record” on abortion and specifically, Roe. In 1981, Biden supported a piece of legislation that would create a constitutional amendment allowing individual states to overturn Roe. He flip-flopped on the issue a year later.
Previously, when Biden entered the Senate, he claimed that the Supreme Court went “too far” on abortion rights in Roe (via NYT):
He told an interviewer the following year that a woman shouldn’t have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body.” By the time he left the vice president’s mansion in early 2017, he was a 74-year-old who argued a far different view: that government doesn’t have “a right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their body,” as he put it in 2012.
Now, the Biden administration pushes for extreme late-term abortions and uses women who undergo these abortions as props to promote this agenda.
In the debate, when Dana Bash asked Biden specifically if he would support any restrictions on abortion, he avoided stating that he believes in abortion at all stages by simply stating that he supports Roe. When Trump pointed out that Roe is extreme, Biden claimed, “We are not for late term abortion. Period. Period. Period."
President Biden, angered by Trump highlighting infanticide, breaks from Dems on abortion: "We are not for late term abortion. Period. Period. Period."
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 28, 2024
Trump: "Under Roe v. Wade, you have late term abortion. You can do whatever you want, depending on the state. We don't think… pic.twitter.com/tmPRkPK1Sd
Trump noted that former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) pushed for late-term abortions and even infanticide after the baby is born.
Here is former Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam supporting born-alive abortions:
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 24, 2023
“The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.” pic.twitter.com/abRE8VmNNl
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