Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Summer 2023
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2023
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2023
    • Great Defender of Life 2023 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2023 Young Adult / Student Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2023
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

BLOG

1 Comment

Biden, the Bishops and Hyde

Maria McFadden Maffucci
abortion, Catholic Bishops, Hyde Amendment, Joe Biden
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

As expected, President Biden has made good on his promise to ditch the Hyde Amendment, dropping it from the federal budget proposal he released the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. The amendment, named, of course, for the late great Congressman Henry J. Hyde, was first passed in 1976 to prohibit federal funding of abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Throughout his Senate career, Biden supported Hyde—citing his Catholic faith—but he reversed his “conviction” in June 2019, when his position drew the ire of the Democratic Party and Big Abortion.

This is adding fire to the Church’s already simmering “communion wars” over whether prominent Catholics ought to be denied the Eucharist if they publicly promote grave sins against the Faith. United States bishops are at odds with each other and with the Vatican.

So what is Joe thinking?

He had to have known how the surrender on Hyde would resonate among his fellow Catholics. Did he just not care? And then he added that he wants to codify Roe v. Wade, which means allowing abortion until birth in the form of a law that can’t be fiddled with by the Supreme Court, Catholic justices or no. That means enshrining this 48-year-old contentious Supreme Court decision into law so that it can never be challenged by the courts again. This is not just forsaking one tenet of the Catholic faith. This is war.

So writes Julia Duin in “Is Joe Biden Only Quasi-Catholic—At Best?,” her article in the Spring issue of the Human Life Review—almost out—which you can read here. Duin does a masterful job of setting the historical stage as well as putting the controversy in context. And she—not a Roman Catholic—doesn’t hold back:

Was Biden’s embrace of the Hyde Amendment until mid-2019 due to his faith, and, if so, what persuaded him to choose his own party over his faith? We may never know, but you can’t blame people like Kansas City Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann for calling Biden’s stance on abortion “religiously and ethically incoherent.” I believe that the 46th president could care less what his church says about the matter—if winning the presidency required throwing the baby out with the (Catholic) bathwater, he was all in. He never planned to come into office as a great change agent who could craft a great compromise on the matter that both sides could agree to.

Archbishop Naumann, chairman of the US Bishops Conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has called on Congress to “reject the administration’s proposal to subsidize the deaths of unborn children” and is encouraging Catholics to sign a petition urging lawmakers to keep the Hyde Amendment (at notaxpayerabortion.com).

 

295 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
Maria McFadden Maffucci

DSC_2711is the Editor in Chief of the Human Life Review

Social Share

  • google-share

One Comment

  1. Arthur McGowan June 2, 2021 at 4:19 pm Reply

    There is no federal law the Supreme Court can’t “fiddle with”–except a law removing the Court’s jurisdiction over certain subject matters.

    Any time during the past 50 years, a simple majority of Congress, and a President, could have removed state abortion statutes from the jurisdiction of the USSC. Note that no bishop has ever promoted such a law. Instead, the bishops wasted decades and millions of dollars promoting a Human Life Amendment.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Pro-Life Principles and Politicians

18 Sep 2023

South Dakota's Pro-Abortion Amendment: An Analysis

15 Sep 2023

Vice President Kamala Harris Launching Pro-Abortion Tour on College Campuses

08 Sep 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Alexandra DeSanctis Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke D. Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Hadley Arkes Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Follow @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.