Biden on abortion rights [View all]

A friend on FB:
"I disagree with RM and JO for a couple reasons. 1) I do not believe that Biden has evolved enough to be a safe choice. 2) Even if I accept that he HAS evolved, I don't believe that it's better to support the candidate who started out with unconscionable viewpoints and then "came around," when there are candidates who have always been very clear on their progressive values, even prior to running for president.

In 2003 Biden "backed a[n abortion] ban that included no exception for the health of the mother." And in 2015 Biden openly said in an interview, "I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there’s human life and being," which is a (if not the) fundamental argument of the pro-life movement and is used consistently by the right to justify taking basic human rights away from people who can get pregnant. (source:https://www.nytimes.com/.../biden-abortion-rights.html).

This is a man who is making calculated changes to his image to run for president, and as much as we might wish he's "changed," I fail to see any compelling evidence of that. His record shows very clearly who he is when he ISN'T trying to win us over."

I'm mainly wondering about the 2003 bill, was there something else in the bill that made him not support it? Votes aren't cut and dried. I want to respond to this....