WASHINGTON — Pro-abortion rights groups and fellow Democratic candidates have been quick to respond to NBC News reporting that former Vice President Joe Biden continues to support the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion services with limited exceptions. 

"There’s no political or ideological excuse for Joe Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment, which translates into discrimination against poor women and women of color plain and simple," Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement released Wednesday. 

EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock said in a separate statement that Biden's stance is "unacceptable" and noted that "Democrats made repealing the Hyde Amendment part of our 2016 platform."

Planned Parenthood Action Fund Executive Director Kelley Robinson argued in her statement that "to support the Hyde Amendment is to block people — particularly women of color and women with low incomes — from accessing safe, legal abortion." 

All three groups have a prominent voice within the Democratic party, making their criticism of Biden notable.

Democratic candidates are also racing to highlight their own support for the Hyde Amendment's repeal. 

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren told reporters in a gaggle in Indiana that she will "lead the fight" to overturn the amendment. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told NBC News that "things like the Hyde Amendment are attacks on women." And more than a half-dozen candidates tweeted about repealing the amendment. 

Outside of Biden, no other Democratic presidential candidate in the race has said they support keeping the law and several have made repealing Hyde a centerpiece of their abortion-rights policies.

Sens. Warren, Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. as well as Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., have co-sponsored legislation to do just that. 

The decades-old Hyde Amendment only allows federal funds to be spent on abortion services in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman.

Along with confirming Biden's support of the Hyde Amendment, Biden press secretary Jamal Brown told NBC News that the former Vice President has a lengthy record of defending a abortion rights and "firmly believes that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and should not be overturned." Brown added that Biden “has fought vigorously to protect a woman's right to choose and against measures criminalizing abortion" throughout his long political career.