No ‘Hyde-ing’ abortion funding

Richard A. Sokerka

For nearly half a century, the Hyde Amendment and related provisions have protected taxpayers from funding abortions. These policies have had broad support from Democrats and Republicans. They have been enacted and signed into law by Congresses and Presidents of both political parties.

The Hyde Amendment, enacted into law since 1976, bars federal funding of most elective abortions in Medicaid. It is not permanent law, and is attached as a rider to budget bills specifying that the health care funding therein cannot be used for elective abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake.

But this will no longer be the case. President Biden’s fiscal year 2022 $6 trillion budget strips out any Hyde Amendment provisions, which will allow taxpayer funding of abortion through Medicaid.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, denounced President Biden’s plan to include abortion funding in his budget, saying, “Congress must reject the Administration’s proposal to subsidize the deaths of unborn children.”

“Taxpayer-funded abortion represents a failure to serve women in their maternity by funding despair and death instead of hope and life,” he said. “These resources would be far better spent supporting women in crisis pregnancies and struggling new mothers so that no woman ever feels economic pressure to have an abortion.”

“For more than four decades, the Hyde family of pro-life policies has kept American taxpayers out of the abortion business,” stated Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List. “The Biden budget throws that longstanding, bipartisan consensus out the window to fulfill a campaign promise to the radical abortion lobby,” she said.

“Joe Biden once said ‘don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.’ Sadly, this administration does not value human life nor does it represent the wishes of mainstream America on such a critical issue,” stated Tom McClusky, president of March for Life Action.

“The Hyde Amendment has proven to be the greatest domestic abortion-reduction measure ever enacted by Congress,” said Jennifer Popik, legislative director of National Right to Life. “The Hyde Amendment is widely recognized as having saved more than two million American lives since it was first adopted in 1976. “The Hyde Amendment’s life-affirming impact cannot be overstated.”

In 2020, a Marist poll found that those opposed to federal funding of abortions held firm with 60 percent of Americans opposed.

Biden, who is hailed a “devout Catholic” by his staff, had always supported the Hyde Amendment until vowing to end that support during his presidential campaign.

Whatever changed his mind, if Congress does not act to stop him, his actions will cement his standing as the most pro-abortion president in history.