Most Americans agree with Biden on the Hyde Amendment

[Alhena]

"A new poll conducted for POLITICO by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that only 36 percent of likely voters want to overturn the long-standing ban on Medicaid paying for abortion with federal funds."

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/abortion-poll-hyde-amendment-230349

For those saying this should disqualify Biden from the Democratic nomination, you only get one vote on the issue of disqualification. I hope you won't mind if I exercise my vote to say that it doesn't disqualify him and that he is setting himself up to be a nightmare opponent for the human cancer that is Donald J Trump.

From a purely political view, when you have 18 candidates going against the prevailing view of most Americans, and one candidate consistent with that view, then you've got a winning political issue for Biden, even in the primaries. The voters who are angry at Biden on this issue, will split their votes among Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, Beto, etc and Biden will have the moderate Democratic voters all to himself. I expect he will even get some Trump voters to cross over and vote for him in the primaries since the Republicans won't have a competitive primary race.

So I think this is a winning issue for Biden politically, and anyone saying his view is outrageous has to accept that, in 2016 at least, most Americans disagreed. I personally would like for my tax dollars to help fun abortions for Medicaid recipients, but I can certainly understand why anyone sincerely opposed to abortion (and there are many) would not want their tax dollars going for this purpose.

[uawchild]

1. New Poll? its from 2016

duh

And "most Americans" includes all the Republicans too, right?

So, are we reduced to this? Wanting our nominee to represent what all the Republicans from 2016 wanted?

I hope not.

[George II]

2. It's more recent than the last comment from Biden on the Hyde Amendment.

[Alhena]

3. I was quoting a 2016 article, no reason to think it's changed since then

[BannonsLiver]

4. Do you have anything more recent?

I’ve looked around and can’t find anything. It seems like the language used by the pollster is critical. When terms like “reproductive services” are used instead of abortion it polls better than people being asked if they want their taxes dollars used to pay for “abortions”.

[Alhena]

6. That was the most recent I could find- here are the specific poll numbers

Here are the actual poll numbers:

Overall, only 36% of likely voters favor allowing Medicaid funding to be used for abortion services, while a majority (58%) oppose. Clinton voters are slightly in favor (57% support, 36% oppose), while Trump voters are decidedly against (19% support, 77% oppose)

[Alhena]

5. I agree with him on the merits of the issue, and I don't consider it being "reduced" to anything

I 100% support abortion being legal, but telling a taxpayer who has strong moral objections to abortion that he has to subsidize them with his tax dollars is something else entirely.

Get out of the echo chamber of DU and woke politics and talk to ordinary Americans sometimes. You might find that not everyone not in the hard left is a bad person.

I give up on the 40% of Americans who consistently support Trump no matter what. But there are a solid 10% or so who I think are decent people whose votes will decide the election. You might not want to dismiss their views as being "reduced" to something below your own views, of you might get to enjoy four more years of Trump and the actual repeal of Roe.

[still_one]

22. The Hyde Amendment make it extremely difficult or impossible for Medicaid

recipients to exercise their constitutional right to safe and legal abortion.
They do NOT have the same rights as other American women who can finance an abortion through out-of-pocket or private insurance. They are NOT afforded the same rights as men who depend on publicly funded healthcare, because no medical service that men need is restricted from coverage as it is for abortion.

While I can also argue other valid medical situations which the Hyde Amendment does NOT exclude, the bottom line is that it is a discriminatory law against poor women.

Joe Biden has self-inflicted this upon himself. I think he would be wise to come forward, and simply say if Congress sends him legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment, he will sign it.

barring doing something like that, I have no sympathy for any pushback that he is getting on this, and seeing that he is at odds with the Democratic platform on this, those people who place that high of a priority on the Hyde Amendment, and wouldn't vote for a candidate that supports the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, are also NOT going to vote for someone who supports Roe V Wade/

[Irishxs]

7. I'm very pro choice, but don't agree with federal funds paying bill. Not sure if that

puts me with Biden or against, but that’s my feeling.

[mobeau69]

11. well, it definitely puts you with the gop

[Alhena]

16. 36% of Hillary voters agreed with him in that poll

And that 36% has only one candidate in the Democratic primary who represents their view. In a race where the other view is split among 18 candidates, you do the math.

[Mr.Bill]

18. No it doesn't. If you are pro choice,

you are not with the GOP.

[Irishxs]

23. I am a lifelong democrat and always have been, My views stretch from single payer

healthcare, strong environmentalist and an extremely strong view that the needs of human beings are more important than the needs of capitalists. It’s not necessary imho to agree with every word of every line in either platform.

[cwydro]

25. Nice personal attack. nt

[Celerity]

31. +10000

[treestar]

8. More importantly, what do the voters of the swing states think?

Being as they decide who wins in the end.

[BannonsLiver]

10. Ah to hell with them

Ideological purity is at stake.

[Irishxs]

24. +100

[50 Shades Of Blue]

9. This isn't a new poll, it's from 2016.

[mobeau69]

12. we need a leaders not poll readers

[BluesRunTheGame]

13. It's a turnout depresser.

Why?

Unless he’s planning on picking John Kasich as his running mate and thumbing his nose at the voters who are repulsed by this?

It’s looking more and more like he’s planning to lean hard to the right once he gets the nomination.

[RVN VET71]

14. At this point Biden's stance is in granite

It is what it is, and if he budges from it and reverses himself, he'll lose credibility as well as support. So he will not change his stance and will, instead, continue to support Hyde whenever asked. It will make for an interesting issue during the debates. If he can make a case for it -- or at least for his reasons for supporting it -- he'll come out looking good. If he cannot make a case for it, he's going to fade into the shadows of the primary campaign and wave good bye to Beto, Swalwell, Gillibrand, and Booker on the way out the door.

(Hey, I love Beto and Swalwell, but they're not getting the "traction" as the media likes to call it, to make a serious push for the nomination. Gillibrand I do not like (cannot forgive or forget her attack on Franken), and Booker showed himself to be in bed with big Pharma so he lost my support -- besides, both Gillibrand and Booker are in the Senate and, frankly, that's where they should stay. The Dems need them there.

[redstateblues]

29. I like Mayor Pete but he has a serious diversity problem that

will probably spell doom for him on Super Tuesday

[RVN VET71]

49. And it looks like Biden DID flip flop

It will be interesting to see how he handles his change of belief in the debates. I was thinking that he'd stick to his support for Hyde and let the chips fall, so to speak. But now that he's had a Damascus moment, the only way he can retain any semblance of integrity on the subject is to admit his change of stance was political. But I don't see how he can do that without looking like a snake, admittedly an honest one.

Joe has always struck me as an extremely likable guy who usually gets away with stuff. But the allegations of plagiarism lost him the nomination to Dukakis -- and Biden would have beaten Papa Bush handily. And this Hyde thing is not going to make him the easy winner he had seemed to be before flipping on it.

I won't write Mayor Pete off, but it doesn't look good for him at this stage of the nomination process. I'd vote for him with no misgivings if he were the nominee. He's the most intelligent, best educated, plainest speaker the Dems have entertained in a long long time. But he's up against some formidable competition: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Bernie, even Beto -- if he get ever get his campaign in gear and capture some serious media coverage -- and, of course, Joe Biden.

Time will tell.

[tiredtoo]

15. Most Democrats do not! EOM

[Alhena]

17. Yep, and they split their vote among 18 candidates. Biden has the minority view all to himself

and of course it's a majority view in the general election.

[saljr1]

19. He just changed his mind Thank Liz

Maybe Liz Warren can get him to vote for her too at the debates lol

[USALiberal]

20. He was against it before he is now for it. nt

[rickford66]

21. Can the rest of us do the same for things we don't approve of ?

The president should have one residence besides the White House. Any Federal money spent on the others should stop. I can think of many more and so can you. Why are the religious groups given special treatment ?

[Irishxs]

26. Joe Biden is strong democrat and always has been.

[onecaliberal]

27. This bullshit is more restriction on women's healthcare.

[delisen]

28. Ho does the Hyde amendment relate to people refusing to

provide services for marriages to gay people?

If I have a right to not pay taxes for poor women to have a legal healthcare service, do I also have the right to refuse to provide a wedding service or bake a wedding service or bake a wedding cake because I do not believe in the right of gay persons to marry?

[jberryhill]

33. Well, how are you gonna know if they were really raped?

Surely, you don’t propose that we should just take their word for it, right?

And if they claim it’s incest, we’re gonna have to check whether they are adopted, right?

Let’s get all up in their business and make sure they can prove this stuff.

We can’t be just giving out abortions like candy, or they’ll be lining up around the block! It’ll crash the economy!

[mobeau69]

37. I would like to know the answer to that one.

I guess a polygraph exam could be required.

[BumRushDaShow]

40. ...

Massive backlog of untested rape kits is 'a public safety issue' that may be letting offenders slip away, experts warn

By ALEXANDRA SVOKOS Jan 26, 2019, 9:31 AM ET

The discovery of the body of Hania Noelia Aguilar, a 13-year-old girl who was raped and murdered after being kidnapped outside her home, broke hearts in the small community of Lumberton, North Carolina, last fall. But the discovery that the man suspected of killing her was linked to another rape and could have been detained at least a year earlier generated a whole different emotion: anger. "It is absolutely tragic and makes me sad and a little bit crazy that this girl was killed, and if the case had been investigated properly, chances are she would be alive today," North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein told ABC News.

Last week, the Robeson County Sheriff's Office fired an investigator after an internal probe found that Aguilar's suspected killer could have been detained before she was abducted -- DNA evidence from a rape kit linked the suspect to a 2016 rape case, giving the sheriff's office probable cause to seek a search warrant. The rape kit evidence linked to Aguilar's suspected murderer was collected in 2016 and tested in 2017, but ultimately -- for publicly unknown reasons -- law enforcement did not follow up on it. "If he had been linked in 2016, we'd be having a very different conversation," Monika Johnson Hostler, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, told ABC News.

The fact that the 2016 rape kit had been tested at all is remarkable, critics say. Between 14,000 to 15,000 other rape kits in North Carolina are waiting their turn in a massive backlog that's been piling up for years, leaving potential repeat offenders like Aguilar's alleged killer free to find their next target. "Every single sexual assault kit that is untested represents a human being who went through an awful trauma, and they as a human being deserve to have their case investigated fully," Stein said.



Testing rape kits can both help get justice for a survivor and stop a person from committing sexual assault or further offenses, according to Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy at the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national organization tackling sexual assault. Because of that, a rape kit backlog "is a public safety issue," she said. "These are preventable crimes in many ways," Knecht told ABC News. "We have the technology, we have the science, to take these very, very dangerous people off the streets, and it hasn’t been used." North Carolina has the highest known number of untested kits of any state, according to data collected by End the Backlog, a Joyful Heart Foundation initiative. Knecht estimates it will take "years and years" to test them all. The next highest state is California with 13,615 untested kits -- and four times as many people.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/massive-backlog-untested-rape-kits-public-safety-issue/story?id=60540635

[jberryhill]

41. Oh, of course

Yeah, because if she doesn’t go to the police and have them get all into her business and interrogate her, then she wasn’t really raped.

[MrsCoffee]

43. Who the fuck are poor people to be having sex anyway?

I mean if you are on Medicaid you shouldn’t be having sex. Sex is only for rich people who can afford abortions should an unwanted pregnancy result.

Oh, and fuck those assholes who buy soda with their food stamps! Amirite?



What an incredibly selfish mindset.

Enjoy your stay.

[Iggo]

45. Okay, that's enough.

[treestar]

39. It's been that way since 1976

So I suppose there is a body of facts regarding how that works.

[Irishxs]

34. Agree

[Iggo]

46. Good gawd, two of you?

[Iggo]

35. I accept your apology.

[MrsCoffee]

42. Too fucking bad.

What a load of right wing garbage.

[hlthe2b]

44. Ahh, yes. The only thing better than blaming/punishing women for having sex is to do so with POOR

women...

Good gawd.

[brooklynite]

32. Most Americans disagree with Biden on the Hyde Amendment

Link to tweet

[aidbo]

36. Lol!

[mtnsnake]

47. homina homina homina

[Voltaire2]

48. So now that he's flipped?