It’s fascinating to see how Democratic politicians change their tune on issues, which they do so frequently. Barack Obama opposed same-sex marriage well into his first term. Hillary Clinton opposed it as well, and even once supported a wall along the southern border — voting with Chuck Schumer and then-Senator Obama for the Secure Fence Act in 2006. All that has changed dramatically since 2010, bizarrely so. Democratic politicians are constantly playing catchup with their base as it veers further and further left.
Joe Biden has held all these positions, and more. As his administration grapples with the fallout of the leaked draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, he has quickly tried to cast himself as a defender of abortion. Yet this pro-choice role is rather difficult for Biden — a devout Irish Catholic, with a record of pro-life positions both political and personal — to manage. The contrast between his current statements and past positions is striking.
Biden entered the U.S. Senate in 1973, just 17 days before Roe v. Wade was decided. It was a momentous time in American politics, and anger at the decision seethed nationwide. Biden, fresh from unseating a Republican in Delaware, sounded much like Republicans then and now. “I don’t like the decision. I think it went too far,” he said, adding that a woman didn’t have “the sole right to say what should happen to her body” when carrying an unborn child.
In the years that followed, Biden dropped his political opposition to abortion, though it was chipped rather than swept away. Four years later, in 1977, he voted for the Hyde Amendment — a spending-bill proviso that, to this day, bans federal funding to subsidize abortions. He voted many times thereafter to uphold the Helms Amendment, which bans foreign aid for abortions. Even more, he wrote and passed the ‘Biden Amendment,’ which bans federal funding for foreign abortion research; it’s been in every spending bill since 1981.
When Ronald Reagan came to office, the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1982 approved a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe — the only avenue available other than a Supreme Court decision. Its language was strict: “The Congress and several States shall have the concurrent power to restrict and prohibit abortions: Provided, That a law of a State which is more restrictive than a law of Congress shall govern.” It passed by a narrow margin, and was supported by only two Democrats. Joe Biden, the ranking Democratic member, was one of them. National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), now in the pro-abortion vanguard, called it “the most devastating attack yet on abortion rights” in American history.
In the years since, neither the Church nor the grim reality of abortion has changed. Biden, however, now sings a different song to serenade his left-wing base, whatever his personal views may be. Still, even as his political tune gradually changed, personal sentiments filtered through. He’s maintained that “life begins at conception.” “That’s the Church’s judgement. I accept it,” he said as late as 2015. It should cast a light on his principles, and the inconsistency thereof. And on whose opinion he cares most about. As the old adage tells us: “Who pays the piper calls the tune.”