Penna Dexter

For the first time in more than 40 years, the President’s proposed federal budget calls for taxpayers to directly fund abortion. This is being done chiefly by eliminating the Hyde Amendment from spending proposals. The Hyde Amendment stipulates that Medicaid cannot pay for abortions and has been attached to federal spending legislation since 1976. This protection has been bipartisan. There have been battles. But, Congress — whether majority-Republican or majority-Democrat — has consistently applied the Hyde amendment and other related policies to federal programs to protect the rights of taxpayers and medical providers who object to abortion. No longer. For the first time in four-plus decades, House committees are passing spending bills without these protections. The National Pro-life Religious Council points out that “numerous other longstanding specific federal provisions that protect our tax dollars from funding abortion have been removed” from legislation. These include, “the Smith Amendment, which eliminates abortion funding from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the Dornan Amendment, which applies the Hyde Amendment to the District of Columbia, the Helms Amendment which protects certain tax money from funding abortion overseas.” And the Left is attempting to strip future pro-life presidents of their authority to implement the Mexico City Policy, which also protects taxpayer dollars from being used internationally to fund abortion. There have always been lawmakers who see abortion as a positive good. But Americans overwhelmingly don’t want their tax dollars to pay for abortion. Our government has operated on the consensus that it should not force citizens to pay for what they see as the destruction of children and families. These longstanding protective policies have saved the lives of some 2.4 million children. But there’s a new breed of abortion extremist that seeks to end these protections. As a counter to their efforts, pro-life House leaders, are asking daily for a floor vote on H.R 18, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Lawmakers who would revoke Hyde should get lots of attention.