Hyde Amendment
In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape.
[3] The original Hyde Amendment was passed on September 30, 1976, by the House of Representatives, with a 312–93 vote to override the veto of a funding bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).
[3] The measure represented one of the first major legislative gains by the United States anti-abortion movement following the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
[3] The version in force from 1981 until 1993 prohibited the use of federal funds for abortions, "except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term".
[8] On October 22, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1994.
[9] The Act contained a new version of the Hyde Amendment that expanded the category of abortions for which federal funds are available under Medicaid to include cases of rape and incest.
During this case, the Reproductive Freedom Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Planned Parenthood collectively represented a pregnant Medicaid recipient and health care providers who challenged the Hyde Amendment.
The United States Supreme Court vacated the injunction in August 1977, leading abortions financed by federal Medicaid to drop from about 300,000 per year to a few thousand.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) stated, "We are a pro-life Congress", and he re-affirmed the government's commitment to restricting tax money to funding abortions.
[34] The Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine reportedly stood with his running mate on the issue, despite formerly having been a supporter of the Hyde Amendment.
[37] During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden reversed his previous support of the Hyde Amendment and pledged to work to overturn it if elected.
[41][42] As reported in Roll Call, “Democrats voted overwhelmingly for the nondefense portion of the omnibus.” House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., "expressed frustration over her party's concession on Hyde [retaining it in the final passed omnibus bill].
She said she's the ‘first appropriations chair since 1977 to remove it because I understand that this is an offensive and discriminatory policy which has shut out countless women from the reproductive health care that they deserve for more than 40 years.’”[43] On January 24, 2025, President Donald Trump revoked two executive orders made by Joe Biden in 2022[44][45] that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to identify actions in protecting and expand access to abortion care, stating that "the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent Federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice.
