38 Anniversaries Too Many: Time to End the Hyde Amendment

Written by Leila Abolfazli, Senior Counsel. Cross-posted from NWLC’s blog.

Anniversaries. I love celebrating anniversaries. Yay to Roe v. Wade, yay to Title IX, yay to 12 years with my husband. Bring on the flowers, cake, and happy dances.

But there is one anniversary where a dark cloud comes over the day. And that’s the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment.

What’s Hyde you say? It’s the restriction that’s passed every year for the past THIRTY-EIGHT years denying women with Medicaid health insurance coverage of abortion except in a few limited circumstances. Every year Congress decides that some women don’t deserve to decide for themselves what’s best for them and their families. Every year some members of Congress who don’t like abortion personally are withholding Medicaid coverage from qualified women, just to make it harder or even impossible for them to have an abortion.

Indeed, the Hyde Amendment is named after Rep. Henry Hyde, who famously once said: “I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion: a rich woman, a middle-class woman or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the [Medicaid] bill.” Well, isn’t that quaint that he thought it unfortunate that he can only prevent abortions for poor women… 

Look, no matter what one’s feelings about abortion are, the fact is that denying coverage for just some women is unfair. Especially where denying that coverage is the difference for some women actually getting an abortion and not. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said in his dissenting opinion in the case that upheld the Hyde Amendment over thirty years ago: “The Hyde Amendment [was] designed to deprive poor and minority women of the constitutional right to choose abortion.”

It’s sad that what Justice Marshall said more than thirty years ago is still true today, and it’s sad that we have let this harmful policy continue for so long.

Enough is enough. Hyde Amendment I am breaking up with you — I don’t want to “celebrate” our anniversary anymore.

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

The National Women's Law Center has worked for four decades to expand, defend and promote women’s rights at every stage of the legal process. Learn more at www.nwlc.org.

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