President Biden committed a pro-choice no-no by using the word “child” in reference to abortion, a slip that Republicans and pro-life advocates were quick to flag.
“The idea that we’re going to make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child based on a decision by the Supreme Court, I think goes way overboard,” Mr. Biden told reporters at a Tuesday confab.
Pro-choice advocates are careful to use terms such as “fetus” instead of “baby” or “child,” as George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley noted after Mr. Biden’s comment.
“President Biden made a surprising statement today in describing Roe as protecting the ‘right to abort a child,’” Mr. Turley tweeted. “Pro-choice advocates often object to the reference to anything other than the ‘fetus’ in debates.”
The Republican National Committee posted the video clip on social media, prompting abortion foes to accuse Mr. Biden of making a Freudian slip.
“Biden admits the life inside the womb is a ‘child,’ but he still supports limitless late-term abortion anyway,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, said that Mr. Biden “screwed up his Leftist talking points,” while Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, tweeted, “Intentionally or not, at least Biden is no longer using euphemisms.”
Major flub by Biden, who just moments ago talked about “the decision to abort a child.” If it is a child, then the “decision to abort” is actually murder and thus illegal. Unsurprisingly, his handlers scurried him away from reporters immediately after he said this. pic.twitter.com/ugxV1cvRwA
— Dan O’Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) May 3, 2022
“Oops! Biden makes confession about who is actually aborted: Gaffe accidentally reveals the truth?” conservative radio host Larry Elder tweeted.
Mr. Biden’s comment came in response to Monday’s leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion indicating that the high court has the votes to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.
“They refuse to acknowledge there’s a right to privacy,” Mr. Biden said of conservative justices. “There are so many fundamental rights that are affected by that, and I’m not prepared to leave that to the whims of the public at the moment in local areas.”
The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List tweeted “Biden slipped up today, acknowledging that abortion kills children … How tragic to see a man, who for decades in the Senate stood against tax funding for abortion, so completely sell out to Big Abortion.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Texas Republican, argued that Mr. Biden said what people already know.
“They try to twist that argument by saying, oh, it’s not really another person, it’s just an extra body part, but that’s of course not true, scientifically, morally,” Mr. Crenshaw said on Fox News. “And in a human sense, we really know that, and that’s what Joe Biden actually said.”
Conservative podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey chalked up the comment to Mr. Biden’s advanced years.
“Biden, like all very old people, no longer has a filter. He says what everyone is thinking,” Ms. Stuckey tweeted. “Here, he admits what we all know: abortion kills a child. And he’s for it.”
Dave Boyer contributed to this report.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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