Why does Joe Biden avoid using the word abortion?

WASHINGTON DC, July 12 — “I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion.  I think it went too far.  I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.”  President Joe Biden made that comment some 50 years ago.  He’s come a long way since he made that remark; these days he’s all for abortion.  What happened that changed his mind?  He still considers himself to be a Catholic, a religion that declares “human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.”  Maybe it’s why Mr. Biden is reluctant to utter the word “abortion” these days.

The Associated Press noted that in his recent debate with President Trump, “Biden deviated from his prepared remarks, skipping over the word ‘abortion’ and instead using phrases such as reproductive freedom or freedom to choose.”  In fact, it appears that he avoids the word whenever he can.  Some say he fears the use of the word because of his Catholic upbringing.

As Timothy P. Carney, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted in a recent OpEd article, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.  From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.  Catholic teaching specifically holds that lawmakers have a duty to protect the unborn through ‘legislation.’  Catholic teaching holds that abortion should be generally illegal.  A Catholic elected official who fights to legalize the killing of the unborn is one who rejects his church’s teaching.”

Biden’s reluctance to use the word “abortion” is well-known in political circles and is considered a hindrance for him come election day.  The Associated Press reports that Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, says that “by not saying the word ‘abortion,’ implies that it’s taboo or something to be ashamed of.  It’s stigmatizing and harmful.  The president should do better.”

In fact, the president’s hesitancy when it comes to the word prompted the creation, early in his presidency, of a website that keeps track of Biden’s uncertainty about abortion.  Its online address is appropriately called, Did Biden Say Abortion Yet.  The site notes that “the Biden-Harris Administration has never used the word ‘abortion’ in a statement commemorating the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized the right to an abortion.  They didn’t use it in a statement after the failed vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act which would codify Roe v. Wade and enact federal protections for abortion access.  He refused to say it in his State of the Union speech.  People who have abortions deserve better from our pro-choice President.  Say the word abortion, Joe!”

John Grimaldi served on the first non-partisan communications department in the New York State Assembly and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Priva Technologies, Inc. He has served for more than thirty years as a Trustee of Daytop Village Foundation, which oversees a worldwide drug rehabilitation network.