What is the Hyde Amendment and how is it related to the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade?

The Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being used on abortion services, has come under renewed pressure following the Supreme Court's decision.

The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976, four years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion. The Supreme Court case Harris v. McRae was the result of legal challenges to the amendment that prevented federal funds from being used to provide abortions.

The Supreme Court ruled in a case in 1980 that states are not obligated to pay for abortions under the Social Security Act. Adults with a low income, children, pregnant women, and people over the age of 65 are covered by Medicaid in the US. Almost half of births in the country were covered by Medicaid.

Thurgood Marshall wrote that the Hyde Amendment was designed to deprive poor and minority women of the right to choose abortion. Denying a Medicaid-funded abortion is the same as denying legal abortion.

The Hyde Amendment reduced the number of abortions financed by federal Medicaid funds from 300,000 to a few thousand.

Various changes have been made to the amendment over the years. New exceptions for rape survivors and incest cases were offered in the 1978 version of the amendment, while later changes expanded the ban to prevent abortion funding from federal worker health plans.

Public support for federal aboriton funding varies depending on the polling source and how the question is phrased, with only 39% of the public in favor of giving public funding for abortions for women who can't afford them, according to a CNN-ORC poll.

The Hyde Amendment funding restrictions have been called for to be reversed by Democratic lawmakers.

The Hyde Amendment is an attempt to outlaw abortion that disproportionately denies the right of choice to low income women and women of color. We need to end this inhumane policy now.

Democrats in Congress tried to remove Hyde Amendment restrictions from government funding bills last year, but the terms were added back into the final spending package at the insistence of Republicans.

President Biden left restrictions on the Hyde Amendment out of his budget proposal, but it's not clear if they will be included in the final bill.

The interim executive director of campaigns and strategies at All* Above All praised the Biden administration for its recommitment to ending the Hyde Amendment, which disproportionately harms people of color. It's a significant step in the right direction.