Democrats charging forward with destruction of Hyde Amendment protections

The Democrat-majority House Appropriations Committee, submitting to the demands of a pro-abortion element of the extreme left, has proposed a new budget without the Hyde Amendment, which for some 40 years now has protected the lives of the unborn and American taxpayers from being billed for those abortions that are committed.

“The elimination of the Hyde Amendment by pro-abortion Democrats destroys over 40 years of previously unprecedented bipartisan support for a measure aimed at saving human lives,” explained Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “This is a campaign by pro-abortion Democrats to ensure that abortion is available on demand, for any reason, at any time, and paid for with taxpayer dollars.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., proposed an amendment to restore the amendment, a plan quickly destroyed by an all-Democrat vote.

“The most egregious aspect of the bill presented today is the removal of the Hyde Amendment, which protects lives and prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion,” Cole explained.

After the Supreme Court created the “right” to abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973, many federal programs just started handing over money to abortionists.

By 1976, the federal Medicaid program was paying for about 300,000 elective abortions annually, and the number was escalating rapidly. An amendment by pro-life Congressman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., to prevent federal Medicaid funds from paying for abortions was enacted.

Jennifer Popik, of National Right to Live, said it has been credited with saving more than two million lives since.

It has been adopted every year for some 40 years, and has garnered bipartisan support.

In a 2021 Marist poll conducted in January, those who “oppose using tax dollars to pay for a woman’s abortion”—58% —is solid and consistent with prior polling. What is noticeable is that 65% of Independents and even 31% of Democrats oppose federal funding of abortion.”

Also missing from the spending plan was Weldon Amendment language that in the past has protected the conscience rights of medical providers, and has prevented situations in which they would be forced into doing an abortion.

Denise Burke, counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, explained after Thursday’s House Appropriations Committee vote for a budget without either protection, ““American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund abortions or to subsidize the dangerous work of abortionists. Every innocent life deserves to be protected. Nearly 2.5 million lives have been saved by the Hyde Amendment since it went into effect 40 years ago.”

She continued, “The majority of Americans support the Hyde Amendment and believe that the abortion industry should not be funded by taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. Government-compelled participation in abortion has no place in our country—an idea that has historically enjoyed bipartisan support.”

Fox reported Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had harsh words for President Biden.

“For decades, nearly his entire career, then-Senator Joe Biden was a reliable supporter of Hyde protections,” McConnell said. “But a couple of years ago on the presidential campaign trail, our former colleague changed his tune. He let the demands of the increasingly radical left overcome a principle he had held literally for decades.”

McConnell explained Biden’s flip-flop is “yet another way in which the administration has sold itself as moderate and unifying” but “is now spiraling way, way to the left.”

At the American Center for Law and Justice, a statement explained the Hyde amendment has been affirmed by the Supreme Court, and it “it is a fairly staggering proposition that Americans should be forced to pay for abortions.”

“But the abortion lobby in Washington, D.C., is demanding increasingly radical devotion to its cause. The effort to repeal the Hyde Amendment is just the latest evidence of how extreme the pro-abortion industry has become,” the organization reported.

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