The abortion industry has long wanted the Hyde Amendment overturned, and it’s no secret why: getting rid of Hyde means higher profits. The Hyde Amendment is not a law, but a rider that has been added to every appropriations bill since 1976, and bans federal taxpayer funding of abortion. The Democratic Party, which in recent years has become much more extreme on the issue of abortion, even added its repeal to the official party platform in 2016. Democrats lost that year, but in the most recent congressional elections, they took back the majority in the House of Representatives — and already are discussing their plans to pave the way for taxpayer-funded abortion.
READ: Pro-life Democrats fight their party’s efforts to repeal the Hyde Amendment
In a press conference, Democrats including members of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus were joined by Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen, speaking about their intentions to overturn the Hyde Amendment. “We are going to end the Hyde Amendment,” Diana DeGette, co-chair of the caucus, said. “We intend to fight aggressively to reverse the terrible decisions made by the Trump administration, and frankly previous administrations, going back 40 years.”
In addition to attempting to overturn the Hyde Amendment, DeGette said she also plans to fight the Trump administration’s plan to make changes to Title X funding requirements, and other pro-life measures. “We intend to reverse all of that. Not in the first month, but soon,” she vowed.
Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to institute new rules for Title X, in which Title X funding recipients could not refer women for abortions, as well as keeping abortion facilities separate from family planning facilities, and mandate that laws regarding the reporting of sexual abuse are followed — an especially harsh blow to Planned Parenthood, which has repeatedly been caught covering up child rape and sex trafficking, and is known to frequently aid abusers.
While Democrats and abortion advocates claim to want to institute taxpayer-funded abortion in the name of women, the reality is that most Americans oppose this. Polls from both Marist and Quinnipiac have found that an overwhelming majority of people do not want their tax dollars paying for abortions, including large majorities of women and low-income Americans.
Activists frequently claim that they are doing this because it’s what women want and need. But the facts make it clear that this is about one thing: furthering abortion, even against the wishes of the people they say they speak for.
