Flashback: Senator Joe Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To Allow States To Overturn Roe V. Wade

President Joe Biden called on lawmakers to protect the right to abortion Tuesday in reaction to the news that the Supreme Court may be positioning itself to overturn Roe v. Wade, but there was a time when his views were different.

The New York Times reported in 2019 that when Biden was serving in the U.S. Senate, he supported a proposed Constitutional amendment that would have allowed individual states to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision. That amendment, called the “Hatch Amendment” after its author, the late Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, stated:

A right to abortion is not secured by this Constitution. The Congress and the several States shall have the concurrent power to restrict and prohibit abortions: Provided, That a law of a State which is more restrictive than a law of Congress shall govern.

In December 1981, the amendment passed the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution 4-0. Hatch, along with fellow subcommittee members, Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, and Arizona Democratic Senator Dennis DeConcini, voted to approve the amendment. Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy abstained. The amendment was then handed up to the full Judiciary Committee, where it passed on March 10, 1982, by a vote of 10-7. Eight Republicans voted for the amendment, along with two Democrats: DeConcini, who voted for it in the subcommittee, and Joe Biden.- READ MORE