Dems Move 1 Step Closer to Forcing You to Pay for Abortions
It’s official: The Democrats are getting one step closer to having you pay to kill other people’s children in the womb, and our “devout Catholic” president would sign off on it.
According to The Hill, the House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittee advanced a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday that would repeal two key rules, known as the Hyde Amendment and Weldon Amendment.
The Hyde Amendment, first included in the budget in 1976, prohibited federal funds from being used for elective abortions through programs like Medicaid. The Weldon Amendment, first included in 2005, prohibits the government from withholding federal money from organizations that won’t cover or provide abortions.
“I know this is an issue on which many of us disagree,” said Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rose DeLauro, the Appropriations Committee chairwoman who promised to do away with the Hyde Amendment last year.
“But regardless of the original intent of Hyde, it has disproportionately impacted women of color, and it has ultimately led to more unintended pregnancies and later riskier, and more costly abortions.”
“We are finally doing what is right for our mothers, our families, our communities by striking this discriminatory amendment, once and for all,” she added.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said she was “thrilled.”
“For far too long, the racist and sexist Hyde Amendment has put the government in control of a personal health care decision for many people with low incomes. And its extension to our federal prison system is cruel and unjust,” she said in a statement, according to ABC News.
“Your ZIP code, financial situation, whether you’re incarcerated or the type of health insurance you have should never determine what kind of essential health care services you can access, including abortion.”
Committee Republicans blasted the decision, particularly given the Hyde Amendment and Weldon Amendment were rare areas of bipartisan comity on Capitol Hill for many years.
GOP Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, one of the Republicans on the subcommittee, said overturning the Hyde Amendment would “destroy decades of bipartisan work” and said it was “out of step with the view of most Americans.”
Rep. Tom Cole said the Hyde Amendment should be reinstated if the budget is going to move forward before mentioning the elephant in the room: “Quite frankly, everyone in this room knows this bill will never pass the United States Senate without their inclusion,” he said, according to The Hill.
That’s the one saving grace of the funding bill. Yes, it was in line with President Joe Biden’s budget. Yes, it passed the subcommittee and it will likely pass through the House Appropriations Committee to the floor — where, if there’s a party-line vote, it will pass.
And then it goes to the Senate, where it will need to clear a 60-vote threshold. The upper chamber is divided 50-50 — and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has already said he continues to support the Hyde Amendment.
Thus, the question becomes whether the sponsored killing of unborn children is a hill House Democrats are willing to die on when it comes to budget negotiations.
One thing we do know: Our favorite “devout Catholic” is all for this.
Biden was a longtime supporter of the Hyde Amendment, but that changed in the summer of 2019 — felicitously, just as his opponents began hammering him over it.
“If I believe heath care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code,” Biden said, according to ABC. “I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right.”
And just like that, “abortion” became “health care” in the eyes of the man who would become the second Catholic to inhabit the Oval Office. Since then, Biden has talked like a Planned Parenthood lobbyist when the issue arises, even though he’s not been keen to bring it up of his own accord.
That’s because not only would it tarnish the “devout Catholic” image, but killing off the Hyde Amendment isn’t popular. In a January Knights of Columbus/Marist poll, even though 53 percent of respondents identified as pro-choice, 58 percent also said they opposed using federal funds on elective abortions.
Pro-life organizations noted the disconnect.
“For a party that claims to care about ‘democracy,’ Democrats don’t seem to value what voters actually think,” American Principles Project president Terry Schilling told The Washington Free Beacon.
“Actions matter far more than rhetoric, and if Democrats continue to act as if the preferences of American voters don’t matter, then they should expect to pay a price for it in the next election. That’s how democracy works, after all.”
“Biden-Pelosi Democrats are scrapping decades of bipartisan consensus to force taxpayers to fund abortion, doubling down on extremism to appease an increasingly radical base,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement, according to ABC.
“This bill is too extreme to pass the Senate and is a major political liability for pro-abortion Democrats.”
The fact Democrats are even willing to try, however, should have a chilling effect on anyone who cares about the sanctity of life.
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