Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday reversed his long-standing support for the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old ban on federal funding for abortions. Biden announced his policy shift at a fundraiser in Atlanta.

Joe Biden: “For many years as U.S. senator, I have supported the Hyde Amendment, like many, many others have, because there was sufficient moneys and circumstances where women were able to exercise that right—women of color, poor women, women who were not able to have access. And it was—it was not under attack as it was then—as it is now. But circumstances have changed.”

Biden’s reversal came during the same week that his campaign affirmed his support for the Hyde Amendment’s ban on federal funding for abortions. That set off a wave of criticism from grassroots Democrats, women’s rights groups and most of Biden’s rivals for the 2020 nomination.