Planned Parenthood endorsed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden Monday in what the abortion provider's president described as a "life and death election."
"This is literally a life and death election," acting Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson told NPR. "We felt like we can't endure another four years of Trump; we have to do everything we can to get him out of office."
The group's endorsement video contrasted Biden's work on the Affordable Care Act with President Donald Trump's judicial appointments and attempts to repeal Obama's health care reform.
"Americans need a president who will empower women, families, and young people," Johnson said in the video.
The video also shows Biden promising to end the "global gag rule," or Mexico City policy, which prohibits U.S. funding for foreign nongovernmental organizations that provide or refer patients to abortion services. Biden said he would restore Title X funding for Planned Parenthood after the group withdrew from the program.
Pro-life groups said Biden's record on abortion showed how extreme the Democratic Party had become on the issue.
"When Joe Biden flip-flopped on the Hyde Amendment, the Democratic Party’s capitulation to extremism was complete," Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said. "Now he supports taxpayer-funded abortion on demand through the moment of birth and vows to stack the Supreme Court with pro-abortion justices who will serve life terms."
"Planned Parenthood noted that this election is about ‘life and death.’ On that point we agree—the lives of countless children are at stake," she added.
"It is offensive to hear our nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, an organization that claims the lives of 345,672 American babies annually (a third of all of the abortions in this country each year), call the 2020 cycle a 'life and death' election," Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, said.
"Those who really care about protecting life realize that the election of Planned Parenthood-endorsed candidate, Joe Biden, will result in a major increase of tax dollars going to the billion-dollar organization, including direct payment for abortions, among other deadly consequences."
Biden changed his position on the Hyde Amendment at the start of his presidential run in 2019. He had voted for the amendment, originally passed in 1976, throughout his time in the U.S. Senate before he changed his stance.
He also said he would codify Roe v. Wade into law as president.