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Biden, Harris state their support for abortion on Roe anniversary

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe…”

U.S. President Joe Biden signs three documents, including an inauguration declaration, Cabinet nominations and sub-Cabinet nominations, as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris watches in the President's Room at the Capitol after his inauguration in Washington Jan. 20, 2021. (CNS photo/Jim Lo Scalzo, pool via Reuters)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 22, 2021 / 11:05 am (CNA).- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stated their commitment to abortion on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision on Friday.

In a statement marking the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade— the Jan. 22, 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion throughout the U.S.—the new president and vice president said they were “committed” to codifying Roe in law, and to appointing pro-abortion federal judges.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe,” their statement read.

“In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack,” Biden and Harris said.

Biden, who is Catholic, promised on the campaign trail that he would codify the 1973 ruling if elected as president.

The codification of Roe aims to ensure that, if the Supreme Court were to overturn the Roe ruling, federal law would still uphold legal abortion under the terms of Roe. The ruling had recognized legal abortion performed before the “viability” of the unborn child, but allowed states to ban abortions post-viability.

Biden has also supported taxpayer-funded abortion, most notably by calling to repeal the Hyde Amendment in 2019. That policy, enacted each year as a rider to budget bills, bars federal funding of abortions.

He has also promised to overturn other protections against taxpayer-funded abortions or abortion advocacy, such as by repealing the Mexico City Policy; that policy bars federal funding of foreign NGOs that perform or promote abortions as a method of family planning.

The rescinding or reinstatement of the policy is traditionally among the first actions a new president takes upon entering office. On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci—White House chief medical advisor for COVID-19—told board members of the World Health Organization that the administration would be repealing the policy in the “coming days.”

As of Friday afternoon, Biden had not yet officially announced a repeal of the policy

While campaigning for president in 2020, Biden also said his health care plan would include abortion coverage, in subsidized health plans offered on a public option.

In addition, on Friday Biden and Harris both promised to work to “increase access to contraception.”

As vice president from 2009-2017, Biden presided over the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate which ultimately brought the Little Sisters of the Poor and Catholic dioceses to court.

The mandate employers to provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and some drugs that cause early abortions in employee health plans.

Biden, as a presidential candidate, said that he would remove religious exemptions to the mandate that were granted by the Trump administration to the Little Sisters and others—thus possibly heralding future court battles with the sisters.

On the day of Biden’s inauguration as president, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles—president of the U.S. bishops’ conference—said he was praying for Biden and noted areas of agreement and disagreement between the bishops and Biden.

“Catholic bishops are not partisan players in our nation’s politics,” he said in a statement. “We are pastors responsible for the souls of millions of Americans and we are advocates for the needs of all our neighbors.”

“For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the ‘preeminent priority’,” he said, adding that “preeminent does not mean ‘only’,” and there are a wide variety of challenges and threats to human dignity facing the country today.”

The U.S. bishops will engage with Biden with the aim of starting “a dialogue to address the complicated cultural and economic factors that are driving abortion and discouraging families,” Gomez said.


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19 Comments

  1. Sickening and how will a priest be able to give Biden Communion this Sunday – he is treating the Church like a bunch of chumps, snubbing his nose aT the Church!

  2. Where’s the Pope? I keep asking over and over again, my kids say I sound like I am playing a kiddie’s game except instead of looking for a guy with a striped red beanie the guy hidding is wearing wearing a white zuchetto and is supposedly the head of the Catholic Church. You know excommunication will send a shiver down old frail Joe’s back – I hear this used to be Bishop Bergolio’s policy for wayward Catholic politicians.

    • And Francis, who have been ambivalent to contradictory about so much Catholic Doctrine doctrine, and has Kowtowed to a formally atheist regime committed to persecuting all other belief systems, has nevertheless consistently defended human life, including the unborn, and had described throwaway culture [of life] as a grave evil. If he has any integrity, he really must explicitly denounce Biden’s complicity with that, and formally excommunicate him and Pelosi as examples of the standard the Catholic Church wishes to uphold.

  3. It looks like Biden will now do exactly what he promised to do. The time of trial is upon us.
    Now belatedly the bishops are, maybe, some of them, waking up to reality. Why o why does not every episcopal seat in the land resound to the authentic voice of Church teaching on abortion? Yet again the job is being left to leaderless laity.
    There is a phrase about the floor of hell being littered with the skulls of bishops.

  4. To enable or approve of abortion – the murder of an unborn human life in the womb – is no different than committing the act of murder in the eyes of God. It is a mortal sin. “Thou shalt not kill.”

    To enable or approve of murdering unborn human lives in the womb is to defy, even shake one’s fist in the face of, the triune God as Creator, who says: “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.”

    To enable or approve of murdering unborn human lives in the womb is to defy the Church, which says: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” (CCC 2270) and “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense” (CCC 2272). Therefore, it is impossible that Biden, who calls himself a Catholic, remain in union with the Church, and must therefore be excommunicated until full repentance.

    To enable or approve of murdering unborn human lives in the womb is to deny the dignity of humanity, especially the innocent who are unable to defend themselves. This is a policy extermination, a holocaust only comparable to that of Herod the Great, of Hitler, and other evil tyrants driven by madness and the Devil.

  5. God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps this celebration of abortion will finally awake us from our stupor and act to stop this genocide.

    • Or more likely abortion will be codified as a federal right and it will increase and become even more entrenched in American legal and social habits. Then what mysterious way will you fall back on? Perhaps doesn’t cut it. Look at the reality.

  6. Bad theology is a cruel taskmaster. Biden and Pelosi have lived their whole lives as devout Catholics and they can thumb their noses at their Creator? Please pray for their repentance.

  7. Over 60 Million lost souls is still not enough for the devils shock troops known as democrats.RBG has a boat waiting for Biden,Karmala.Obama & Grandholm waiting by the River Styx to take them across to their new home

  8. In the past his default answer when asked about the disparity between his claim to be ‘Catholic’ and his constant support of abortion, Joe said he was personally opposed to abortion but he would never force his beliefs on anyone. What a liar the man is.

    Somewhere out there is a Priest who has the courage to deny him Holy Communion, and someday the two shall meet.

    This man has placed his political career above his faith, in effect he has excommunicated himself, as has Nancy Pelosi and many others. and that is never a good idea.

  9. If a person who receives Communion unworthily eats and drinks judgment unto himself(Corinthians 11:27-29, CCC 1385) then would a priest who willingly and knowingly gives communion to an unrepentant sinner be guilty of spiritual murder?

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