Yesterday, the United States Congress voted 238-183 to make the Hyde Amendment permanent.
H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017, will codify into law a prohibition of federal funding of abortion through programs such as Medicaid and the federal health care exchanges structured under Obamacare.
The Hyde Amendment, first enacted in 1976, applies to budget and appropriation riders that have been voted on to prohibit federal funding of abortion. Until the passage (and hopeful passage by the Senate and signing of President Trump) of H.R. 7, both the direct use of federal funds for abortion services and federal subsidies for plans that include abortion coverage, have been prohibited on a case-by-case basis under Hyde. H.R. 7 will make the prohibition permanent.
H.R. 7 protects taxpayers from subsidizing abortion even further. The resolution prohibits abortions at facilities owned or operated by the federal government, and prevents federal employees from committing abortions within the scope of their employment.
President Trump followed through on his Pro-Life promise by reinstating the Mexico City Policy which strips all funds from foreign groups that promote or commit abortion abroad. Congress has now done the same.
“We are a pro-life Congress,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement. “Today we renewed our commitment to the Hyde Amendment with the passage of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. I want to thank Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) for his tireless commitment to this cause. This legislation protects the conscience of American taxpayers by ensuring that not a single dollar of their hard-earned money goes to fund abortions.”
The anti-Life left has already lamented the action saying the law discriminates against low-income women, who they insist must be able to obtain taxpayer funds for abortion simply because they are poor.
“The Medicaid ban in particular means that abortion is already disproportionately unaffordable for poor women, young women, and women of color — all of whom are more likely to need abortions in the first place,” [emphasis added]wrote the liberal site Vox.
This is not the first time the left has defended the “need” for abortion to be pushed on the poor. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 2014 that when Roe v. Wade was decided she felt taxpayer-funding for abortions for poor women was imperative:
“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion [emphasis added].”
Liberal elites have always felt the need to weed out certain “unwanted populations,” but this Congress and the new Trump administration are seeking ways to protect both the taxpayer and the women from the radical forces of the abortion left.