"I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to ... exercise their constitutionally protected right," he said, although is precisely the effect that the Hyde Amendment has had throughout the time Biden supported it.
Earlier, in response to the criticism of his position, Biden's campaign declared that the candidate "firmly believes that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and should not be overturned." Since similar assurances were given by Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh after Trump nominated them to the Supreme Court, this type of language reassured no one genuinely concerned about the threat to abortion rights.
On the same day that Biden declared his continued support for the Hyde Amendment, the Trump administration issued an executive order ending funding of medical research by federal scientists using fetal tissue and canceling a multi-year contract with the University of California at San Francisco to test potential HIV therapies using such tissues.
The National Institutes of Health supports most fetal tissue research conducted by about 200 corporate, hospital and university laboratories.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said the decision was made by Trump personally "to protect the dignity of human life." Another official said that Vice President Mike Pence, a Christian fundamentalist and anti-abortion fanatic, worked with officials of the Department of Health and Human Services to draft the research ban.
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