[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 101 (Thursday, June 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Abortion

  Mr. President, now on another matter, unfortunately the 
administration's radical left turn touches much more than just 
infrastructure policy. In fact, it includes an unprecedented new threat 
to the basic dignity of human life.
  On the campaign trail last year, President Biden announced that he 
would abandon a mainstream position he had held literally for decades: 
that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund abortions. It was an 
alarming reversal. But under immense pressure from the far left, 
President Biden kept his radical campaign promise, shrugged off a 
commonsense precedent upheld by administrations of both parties for 
more than 40 years, and proposed a budget that entirely erases the 
protections of the Hyde amendment.
  When asked about it at a hearing yesterday, the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services confirmed that the President's change of heart was 
not a mistake, saying: ``The budget is a reflection of what the 
President has said.'' This new fringe stance on taxpayer-funded 
abortions aligns much more closely with the Secretary's own views, as 
our colleagues may recall from his confirmation process.
  Now, it is no secret that the Democratic Party has been hurtling to 
the left on abortion in recent years. Here in the Senate, our 
colleagues have repeatedly blocked efforts to limit elective abortion 
after the 20th week. Their opposition keeps the United States in a 
rather inglorious company alongside China, North Korea, and just four 
other countries that fail to offer this basic protection to the unborn.
  So President Biden's decision to abandon the Hyde amendment aligns 
him with an increasingly radical consensus among elected Democrats, but 
it puts him way out of step with the clear majority of Americans who 
oppose taxpayer-funded abortion.
  The administration's budget request continues to make headlines for 
all the wrong reasons, but its plan to sell out on longstanding 
protections for the most vulnerable Americans might just be the lowest 
of the low.