This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, a landmark pro-life policy enacted in 1976 that prevents most federal Medicaid funding from being used for abortion.
Pro-life scholars estimate that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives since its enactment.
“For fifty years, the Hyde Amendment has demonstrated a simple but extraordinarily important truth: when the law protects unborn children, lives are saved,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “More than 2.6 million Americans are alive today because Henry Hyde had the courage to act and because pro-life Americans worked to make those protections a reality.”
The amendment, developed with the leadership of Congressman Henry Hyde and National Right to Life, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Harris v. McRae in 1980 and has been renewed through the annual appropriations process for five decades.
Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and a longtime leader in Congress on pro-life issues, has introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act (H.R. 7). The legislation would make the Hyde Amendment’s protections permanent and government-wide, eliminating the need to renew the core prohibition on federal funding of abortion through the annual appropriations process.
Massachusetts Citizens for Life joins National Right to Life in supporting legislation introduced by Congressman Chris Smith to make the Hyde Amendment permanent.
“Congressman Chris Smith has carried forward the work that Henry Hyde began fifty years ago,” said Tobias. “The Hyde Amendment has demonstrated for half a century that preventing taxpayer funding of abortion saves lives. Congress should build on that remarkable legacy by making those protections permanent.”