Joe Biden To Meet Pope Amid Domestic Pressure Over Abortion Rights

Joe Biden-Pope Meet: It is not known if Biden and Pope Francis will discuss the abortion disputes at their private meeting, their first since Biden took office.

Devout Roman Catholic Joe Biden meets Pope Francis in the Vatican on Friday at a time when the U.S. president is under intense pressure for his conflicted position in the dispute over abortion rights.

Biden goes to weekly Mass regularly and keeps a picture of the pope behind his desk in the Oval Office. He has said he is personally opposed to abortion but as an elected leader cannot impose his views.

But Conservative Catholic media and U.S. conservative bishops have criticised him for that stand, with some saying he should be banned from receiving communion, the central sacrament of the faith.

At the same time, supporters of abortion rights have been horrified by a new Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion. Biden's administration has challenged the law and the Supreme Court will hear the case next Monday.