Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Joe Biden repeatedly made the claim in a Sunday interview on the NBC political show "Meet the Press" that he opposes taxpayer funding of abortions. However, a look at his voting record over the years reveals numerous instances where Barack Obama's pro-abortion running mate did exactly that.

"I don't support public, public funding. I don't, because that flips the burden. That's then telling me I have to accept a different view," he said on the program.

As recently as February, Biden voted against an amendment that would permanently prevent abortion funding at Indian health care service facilities. The amendment from Sen. David Vitter would codify a longstanding policy against funding of abortions with federal Indian Health Service (IHS) funds.

The language of the Vitter amendment follows the Hyde amendment, which prohibits direct funding of abortion under Medicaid except in very rare cases when the mother is a victim of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens her life.

The Senate voted 52 to 42 for the Vitter amendment and several Democrats joined Republicans in passing it, though Biden was not one of them.

In April 2005, Biden voted against the Mexico City Policy, which President Bush instituted to prohibit taxpayer funding of groups that promote or perform abortions overseas. He also voted for international abortion funding in July 2003.

In a May 2003 vote, Biden also voted for a pro-abortion amendment to repeal the law that prohibits performance of abortions of military base hospitals, all of which are taxpayer-funded.

The Senate defeated the amendment by just three votes and the margin would have been larger had Biden voted against it.

Biden voted for taxpayer-funded abortions at military base medical centers in June 2002 along with votes in May 1999 and June 2000.

In fact, according to voting records from the National Right to Life Committee, Biden hasn't voted against taxpayer funding of abortions since a July 1999 vote prohibiting the funding of abortions in the health plans of federal employees.

 

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