President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House, Sept. 9, 2021. / WhiteHouse.gov

Washington D.C., Oct 20, 2022 / 18:20 pm (CNA).

Pro-life leaders are challenging President Joe Biden after he expressed support for a federal fund for women who take time off work or pay for child care while seeking an abortion. 

“It is heartbreaking to see President Biden is so obsessed with abortion on demand that he is willing to use American tax dollars to push for more abortion rather than offering federal funding for lifesaving options offered by pro-life organizations and maternity homes around the country,” Jeanne Mancini, the president of March for Life, responded in a statement.

Biden made his comments during an interview forum that will air Oct. 23 with the digital media brand NowThis. Group Nine Media, which houses NowThis, shared a portion of the transcript with CNA. 

Biden’s remarks on abortion came in response to a question from 26-year-old medical resident Danielle Mathisen, who cited her own abortion.

“I had to travel about 600 miles and leave my family behind and spend thousands of dollars to get abortion care for my own very wanted and very loved pregnancy in the wake of Roe,” Mathisen said, referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision that was recently overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — a ruling that frees individual states to decide abortion policy. 

“Some companies are offering funding and services for trips like this,” she added, before asking Biden, “Would you support a federal fund for individuals like myself who need to take time off work, obtain child care?”

Biden responded: “Absolutely.”

“The answer is absolutely,” the president said. “But guess what? We need the same votes. We need to overrule Dobbs to reinstate the decision that was struck down by the court.” 

He said that, as president, he encouraged companies to help their employees get abortions.

“I mean, I do support that, and I’ve urged publicly urged companies to do that,” he continued. “I’ve urged them publicly as president of the United States saying, this is what you should be doing. I urge you to do it because there’s so many, and imagine the women who need that kind of assistance, but have no money at all to be able to do this. None. How, how, what do they do? They don’t, they don’t have the option.”

As president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser stressed that Biden’s position on abortion is unpopular.

“President Biden and the Democrats’ one-note strategy of promoting abortion on demand until birth won’t prevent them from losing Congress,” she said in a statement. “Biden’s radical agenda is not in line with the majority of Americans who support limits on abortion, including limits on brutal late-term abortions when unborn babies can feel pain.” 

On Twitter, the president of Students for Life, Kristan Hawkins, said that Biden’s remarks inspired her to take action at the ballot box.

“How does it feel, American taxpayers, when the President tells you that he’s taking money out of your wallet & handing it over to abortionists to kill children — & there’s nothing you can do about it?” she tweeted. “Personally, it makes me feel the urge to vote.”

CatholicVote also responded on Twitter, asking: “Govt sponsored abortion vacations?” The Catholic advocacy organization challenged Biden for “committing to take tax dollars out of the pockets of American workers to pay for time off to destroy unborn children.”

The president, a Catholic, has repeatedly supported abortion despite the Catholic Church’s teaching that abortion is a grave evil and that human life is sacred from the moment of conception.

The NowThis interview forum follows Biden’s speech on Tuesday, in which he promised to codify Roe v. Wade if Democrats win the midterm elections in November.

The White House did not respond with comment by time of publication.