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PETITION: Urge state governors to stop abortions during coronavirus crisis! Sign the petition here.

April 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said abortion is an “essential health care service” during the coronavirus crisis. 

During a virtual town hall event on Tuesday, featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Biden focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on women.

“Finally, we need to ensure that women have access to all health services during this crisis,” he said, adding that “abortion is an essential health care service.”

Without naming them, former vice president Biden accused pro-life groups of using abortion “as a political wedge right now, and it shouldn't be.”

He said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association agree abortion “shouldn’t be categorized as a procedure that can be delayed. It can’t. And in this case, health care delayed means health care denied.”

“States should not be using public health crises to infringe on a woman’s constitutional right” to abort her child, Biden said. 

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists pointed out that “ACOG spinning ‘elective’ abortion into ‘essential’ health care is more of the same. Continuing to perform elective abortions during a pandemic is medically irresponsible.”

“Elective abortion is neither ‘essential’ nor ‘urgent,’ but it does consume critical resources such as masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, and unnecessarily exposes patients and physicians to pathogens,” the group of pro-life doctors added.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, responded that abortion “is not health care.” She said Biden’s “exploitation of the COVID-19 crisis to promote abortion on demand” was “shameful.”

“Biden has once again proven that he stands for abortion on demand through the moment of birth, paid for by taxpayers,” Dannenfelser continued. “In doing so, he has not only aligned himself with the failed agenda of Hillary Clinton, which the American people soundly rejected in 2016 when they elected President Trump – a major political liability for him – he has raced further to the left than any nominee before him in his bid to appease the radical abortion lobby.”

In fact, Biden introduced Clinton as “the woman who should be president of the United States right now,” referring to her 2016 presidential campaign. Before that, Clinton had run for president already in 2008, but lost against Barack Obama, who went on to pick Biden as his vice president.

During the virtual town hall event, Clinton officially endorsed Biden and said amid the coronavirus pandemic, “every form of health care should continue to be available, including reproductive health care for every woman in this country.”

Dannenfelser pointed out that “Democrats used to call for abortion to be ‘safe, legal and rare,’ and now they deem abortion on demand at all costs ‘essential’ even during a pandemic.”

She said her organization “is working tirelessly to mobilize every pro-life voter in this crucial election, including pro-life Democrats and Independents alienated by the Democratic Party, to defeat Joe Biden and re-elect President Trump, the most pro-life president in history.”

According to the Susan B. Anthony List, the group has already visited about 830,000 homes and made more than 650,000 phone calls to voters during this campaign, focusing on the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina. The goal is to reach four million voters overall before the election this November.

Biden, claims to be a practicing Catholic, even though abortion is considered by the Catholic Church to be wrong under any circumstances. After an American priest followed canon law by refusing to give him the Eucharist last year, Biden said the Pope “gives me Communion,” trying to frame his position on abortion as something with which not even the Pope has a problem.

Biden’s proposed health care plan would enshrine abortion on demand into law, funded by the taxpayer.

Biden says he would “codify” Roe v. Wade in federal law; repeal the Hyde Amendment that bars direct public funding of most abortions; force states to accept Medicare funding for Planned Parenthood; reverse the Mexico City Policy, which bars federal funds from supporting abortion overseas; and direct the Justice Department to “do everything in its power” to block state pro-life laws, including parental notification requirements, ultrasound laws, and waiting periods.