Pro-Life Congressmen Seek to Save the Hyde Amendment

For immediate release: Tuesday, January 26, 2021

House Republicans Seek to Save the Hyde Amendment from Pro-Abortion Democrats

WASHINGTON – The House Republican Study Committee today released a letter sent to congressional leaders pledging “to vote against any government funding bill that eliminates or weakens the Hyde Amendment or other current-law, pro-life appropriations provisions.” The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) supported the effort and heralded the pledge, which was co-signed by 200 lawmakers including 7 Pro-life Congressmen of Tennessee: Burchett, DesJarlais, Fleischmann, Green, Harshbarger, Kustoff and Rose.

Pro-abortion Democrats have targeted the Hyde Amendment as part of their scorched-earth campaign to remove any and all limitations on abortion and require taxpayer funding of abortion. Eliminating the Hyde Amendment would destroy over 40 years of unprecedented bipartisan support for a measure aimed at saving human lives.

“The life-affirming impact the Hyde Amendment has had cannot be overstated,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee. “The Hyde Amendment has proven to be the greatest domestic abortion-reduction measure ever enacted by Congress. The Hyde Amendment has enjoyed bipartisan support for over 40 years and is widely recognized as having saved over two million American lives since it was first adopted in 1976.” 

After Biden had supported the Hyde Amendment for years, last summer, the press recorded then-candidate Biden’s infamous flip-flop on the Hyde Amendment. Biden finally concluded, “If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code.”

“Not surprisingly, the Biden-Harris Administration, which enthusiastically embraced the pro-abortion movement’s agenda during the campaign, will be extremely hostile to the unborn child and her mother,” said Tobias. “We can expect that the Hyde Amendment—which has had overwhelming public support over the years—will only be the first of many pro-life policies targeted.”

On Thursday, January 21, National Right to Life released its State of Abortion in the United States, 2021 report. In it, the 8th annual report takes a detailed look at the history of the Hyde Amendment, which has prevented federal funding of elective abortion in Medicaid since the late Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) first introduced it in 1976.

The report is available from the National Right to Life Communications Department here:   http://www.nrlc.org/uploads/communications/stateofabortion2021.pdf

Founded in 1968, National Right to Life, the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.

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