By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-09-30 22:01:53 | Updated at 2026-10-01 02:45:39
7 hours ago
A federal provision that prohibits taxpayer-funded abortions turned 50 years old on Wednesday; a measure Democrats are plotting to destroy if they end up in power again in 2026 and 2028.
The Hyde Amendment was introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) and passed in 1976 in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s now-defunct 1973 Roe v. Wade decision inventing a federal right to abortion. The provision must be passed every year in the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill, which is the bill that funds Medicare and Medicaid. The amendment prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions or from funding health insurance plans that cover abortion, with exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
The Hyde Amendment is estimated to have saved approximately 2.7 million lives since its inception, according to the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute. Twenty-one state Medicaid programs cover elective abortions, “circumventing the impact of the Hyde Amendment in those states,” the organization noted.
“For 50 years, the Hyde Amendment has stood for a simple principle: Americans should not be forced to pay for the destruction of unborn children’s lives with their tax dollars. Hyde has made a profound difference by saving more than 2.6 million unborn babies,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the leading pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“Hyde was originally a bipartisan policy — a compromise. For decades, it was understood that regardless of their views on abortion, Americans should not be forced to fund it with their tax dollars. And in fact, the Supreme Court agreed. What the government pays for, it incentivizes or gets more of. More abortion is not what Americans or the federal government have stood for,” she continued.
Dannenfelser warned that Democrats “have increasingly abandoned that consensus and are pushing to repeal Hyde and force taxpayers to fund abortion nationwide, making abortion even more common,” and pointed to Democrats’ 84-page agenda they plan to implement if they win back majorities in the midterm elections.
“They have made their intentions clear, saying that if they take the majority in Congress, eliminating Hyde would be among their priorities in their first 100 hours. That puts a 50-year legacy of protecting unborn children and American taxpayers directly at stake, and why this November’s elections are so critical,” she said.
Democrats tried to remove the Hyde Amendment from appropriations when they won the House, Senate, and the presidency in 2020. However, Republicans were able to block the move using the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires a 60-vote majority to pass legislation.
Former President Joe Biden, who had long supported the Hyde Amendment during his 36-year-long Senate career, switched his stance during his campaign for president.
Democrats argue the Hyde Amendment keeps lower income people and minorities from having equal access to ending the lives of their unborn babies in abortions.
The far-left Progressive Caucus and Reproductive Freedom Caucus are pushing for passage of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment permanently and force health coverage for abortions for people who have insurance through the federal government.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
