White House press secretary Jen Psaki dodged a question Tuesday during a press briefing after being pressed on when President Joe Biden believes a child's life begins.
When she was asked by EWTN reporter Owen Jensen when Biden believes life begins, Psaki stated the president's stance on abortion.
"You know the president's position," Psaki said. "He believes in a woman's right to choose."
Jenson responded, "That’s not the question I asked."
Psaki and Jensen then engaged in a back-and-forth, with Psaki accusing the reporter of asking the same question whenever he is at the press briefings and Jensen contesting that a direct answer is "central" to the "debate over a baby’s viability."
"The president believes in a woman's right to choose," Psaki said before calling on another reporter.
Asked to clarify when, exactly, Biden believes life begins, Jen Psaki repeatedly dodges: "the president believes in a woman's right to choose." pic.twitter.com/oCH28BEnKg
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 1, 2022
This comes after Biden in September appeared to change his long-held belief that life begins at conception when discussing Texas' new abortion law, which bans the procedure after a heartbeat is detected and allows private citizens to sue individuals such as doctors and drivers who helped a woman get an abortion.
"I respect those who believe life begins in the moment of conception – I respect that," Biden told reporters at the time. "Don't agree, but I respect that."
But Biden had said as recent as 2015 that he believed life begins "at the moment of conception."
"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 said during an interview at the time.
Biden in 2015: "I'm prepared to accept that the moment of conception is a human life and being." pic.twitter.com/1ZPCVWjxJY
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 3, 2021
And in 2008, the president said he was "prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception."