AOC advocates for abortion rights \u2014 but voted to restrict funding
WASHINGTON – Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who just criticized Joe Biden for waffling on abortion rights — has herself voted for legislation that restricts government funding of abortions.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens/Bronx) voted on Jan. 9 for an appropriations bill that included restrictions for abortion coverage under federal employees’ health insurance plans.
The measure also prevented funds from going to abortions in the District of Columbia “except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or where the pregnancy is the result of an act or incest.”
The New York Democrat slammed ex-Vice President Joe Biden’s now former support for the Hyde Amendment, which greatly restricts the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. Biden flipped after facing a backlash from abortion rights advocates and rivals seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
“The term progressive is getting hijacked so much that people just think it means Democrat now and not all Democrats are progressive,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a sit-down with the Young Turks on Thursday. “I’m sorry, but if you’re going to come out and say you support the Hyde Amendment, which prevents us from funding clinics like Planned Parenthood, that’s not progressive.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson had no immediate comment.
Other progressives in line with Ocasio-Cortez’s Democratic socialist ideology also have voted for bills that included the Hyde Amendment.
Among the 2020 presidential crowd, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) fits that bill, having voted for a 2018 appropriations bill that included Hyde language.
She was joined by other 2020 hopefuls including Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), as well as Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who voted for bills that include abortion funding restrictions.
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Biden flips on Hyde Amendment after Democratic backlash
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), however, was a no vote on that 2018 bill.
On Wednesday Biden’s campaign initially confirmed that he still backed the Hyde Amendment, which first passed the House in 1976. That language has been used in appropriations legislation ever since.
His 2020 rivals – who support scrapping the Hyde Amendment – piled on to criticize Biden, the crop’s current front-runner.
On Thursday in Atlanta, Biden announced that he no longer supported the anti-abortion Hyde amendment, telling a crowd, “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code.”
The restriction of federal funding of abortions affects women who are poor and qualify for public assistance.
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