Catholic Joe Biden in 2015: ‘I’m Prepared to Accept that the Moment of Conception Is a Human Life and Being’

President Joe Biden in 2015 said he was “prepared to accept that the moment of conception is a human life and being,” a drastic shift from what he told reporters this week, confessing he fundamentally disagreed with that view in the wake of Texas’s pro-life law taking effect.

“I respect those who believe life begins at the moment of conception and all. … I respect that. Don’t agree. But I respect that,” Biden, a self-proclaimed Catholic, told reporters after a White House speech.

That view represents a dramatic shift from the position he touted during an interview in 2015.

“I’m prepared to accept that the moment of conception is a human life and being. But I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing, non-God-fearing people that have a different view,” he said at the time, although he attempted to couch the position, explaining he was “not prepared to impose” on others “doctrine that [he’s] prepared to accept”:

Hillary Namba, left, of Seattle, holds a wire coat hanger and a sign Tuesday, July 10, 2018, as she takes part in a protest in Seattle against President Donald Trump and his choice of federal appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his second nominee to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh plunged into his confirmation battle Tuesday, meeting face-to-face with Senate leaders in what promises to be an intense debate over abortion rights, executive power and other legal issues that could reshape the court and roil the midterm elections (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church specifically teaches that “the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”

Some of approximately 20 anti-abortion protestors chant outside The Chateau Restaurant Sunday, June 13, 2004, in Manchester, N.H., before the arrival there of former Vice President Al Gore. Democrats were having a dinner at the restaurant and their likely nominee for president, John Kerry, is a pro-abortion Catholic (AP Photo/Lee Marriner).

On Wednesday, Biden released a statement following Texas’s abortion law, which bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, vowing to “protect and defend” the right to abortion.

Biden is hardly the only Catholic Democrat to express support for abortion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also blasted the Lone Star State’s pro-life law, deeming it a “catastrophe to women.”