WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The 2016 Democratic Party platform is so pro-abortion it goes further than President Obama’s own policy on abortion, a White House spokesman said.
The 2016 platform calls for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortion in most circumstances, as well as the Helms Amendment, which imposes a similar ban on U.S. aid to foreign nations.
When asked about the president’s views, an Obama administration official told the press the president holds a contrary stance on the issue.
“I don’t believe we have changed our position on the Hyde Amendment, but if we do, you’ll be the first to know,” said White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz on Tuesday, according to The Daily Signal reporter Fred Lucas. “We have a longstanding view on this, and I don’t have any changes in our position to announce today.”
However, in a 2001 public radio interview, then-State Senator Barack Obama discussed battles over taxpayer funding of abortion in response to a caller’s question about “reparative economic work.”
“I think those are very important battles that have to be fought, and they do have a distributive aspect to them,” he said.
A new Marist poll found that 62 percent of Americans – including 44 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of African-Americans, oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.