Contributed by Priscilla Huang
Former Congressman Henry Hyde died last Thursday, but he didn’t die alone. Hyde left a legacy that includes women like Rosie Jimenez, a victim of one of Hyde’s anti-choice policies. A Latina single mother, Rosie is the first woman known to have died from a back alley abortion as a result of the Hyde Amendment. Tragically, she was found with a $700 scholarship check when she died. Rosie had hoped to finish her education and pursue a better life for herself and her 5-year old, so she risked the cheaper alternative--an unsafe abortion.
Rep. Hyde’s 30+ years of service in Congress included an extraordinary effort to impeach Bill for lying about the affair with Monica despite Hyde’s own long-term extramarital affair, which the Congressman dismissed as a “youthful indiscretion.� Uh huh. Please let me know the next time you hear someone characterize a seven-year relationship, especially one that took place in his 40s, a “youthful indiscretion.�
Although many will probably remember Hyde for his role in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, millions of women are likely to remember him as the man responsible for passing one of the most restrictive policies on abortion access. In 1976, Hyde introduced a rider to an annual appropriations bill, now known as the “Hyde Amendment,� that bans federal funding for abortions. The original version didn’t contain any exceptions, but in its current form, the Hyde Amendment makes exceptions for life, rape and incest.
Medicaid paid for about 300,000 abortions per year before the Hyde Amendment. After the Hyde Amendment went into effect, the number dropped to just a few thousand. The law has had devastating consequences for poor women, who are disproportionately women of color. Currently, 7.3 million women of reproductive age are enrolled in Medicaid, and women of color make up half of non-elderly Medicaid beneficiaries. Hyde is also responsible for this gut-wrenching statistic: 18–35% of Medicaid-eligible women would have had an abortion but carried their pregnancies to term because there is no public funding for abortions.
Unfortunately, low-income women aren’t the only ones impacted by the restriction. The Hyde Amendment also applies to women in the military, the Peace Corps, federal prisons, and women who receive health care from Indian Health Services, which provides care for 60 percent of the U.S. indigenous population. Lovely. In addition, immigrant women who have been in the U.S. for less than five years can’t even enroll in Medicaid, let alone access reproductive health care or the narrow range of abortion services available to low-income women.
Hyde continued his anti-choice crusade throughout his tenure and consistently scored near the top of the National Right to Life Committee’s Congressional Scorecard. He was a fervent advocate of the so-called “Partial Birth Abortion� Ban, and we can also thank Rep. Hyde for introducing an anti-choice amendment to the Telecommunications Reform Act that may have far-reaching implications. This other Hyde Amendment extended the Comstock Law --a Victorian-era statute-- and made it illegal to sell or distribute information or materials about contraception or abortion through online activities and communications. Although the Act is an unconstitutional prohibition of free speech, it’s possible that overturning Roe could open the door to the prosecution of anyone who shares abortion information online. Beware pro-choice bloggers.
Hyde has certainly made his mark on recent history, however it’s not one that we should let stand. Hyde was a freshman Congress member when he introduced the Medicaid spending bill ban in 1976, and he left 30 years of anti-choice destruction in his wake. To me, that means we have to make sure that every candidate we vote for is solidly pro-choice. Otherwise we risk putting women’s lives, like that of Rosie’s, in the hands of another Henry Hyde.
To learn more about the Hyde Amendment and ways you can help, check out NNAF’s Hyde-30 Years is Enough! Campaign. Also, be sure to sign their petition and send a message to Congress to repeal the Hyde Amendment!
Priscilla Huang is the Policy & Programs Director at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.
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Does one have to PROVE one was raped in order to get in on that rape-incest-life loophole? I've always wondered that.
Good riddance, you filthy fuck.
ditto
While I agree he was an asshole, I fail to see how this is particularly relevant:
"Rep. Hyde’s 30+ years of service in Congress included an extraordinary effort to impeach Bill for lying about the affair with Monica despite Hyde’s own long-term extramarital affair, which the Congressman dismissed as a “youthful indiscretion.� Uh huh. Please let me know the next time you hear someone characterize a seven-year relationship, especially one that took place in his 40s, a “youthful indiscretion.�
Yes, that's rather hypocritical, but honestly, where Hyde or Clinton's penis has been is really not the public's business.
Yes, that's rather hypocritical, but honestly, where Hyde or Clinton's penis has been is really not the public's business.
That's certainly right. But the hypocrisy of lawmakers is an issue.
I think it's funny when anti-choicers cry about Planned Parenthood getting more federal funding than crisis pregnancy centers, but also celebrate the fact that no federal funding goes to abortion services.
And I'd like to know where the children of that 18%-35% of poor women are now. If what Mike Huckabee said is true, they're picking fruit and cleaning hotel rooms.
I had an abortion a few years back fully paid for by the state of Minnesota. No questions asked. I was on MinnesotaCare, which is insurance for low-income folks. It makes much smarter financial sense to let a low-income woman have an abortion then for the state to pay for all the pregnancy expenses not to mention health insurance, formula and god knows what else for the child after it's born. Why is this so damn hard to figure out? Don't like abortion? Don't fucking have one. How about pro-lifers get behind ending war or feeding hungry kids? Jeez, there are lots of social ills to cure. Get going!
kolie I agree! It's one thing to have a personal belief about something, but to force that opinion on anyone else is wrong.
Hyde's obituary in the Chicago Tribune said that although he was very much opposed to abortion he felt that federal benefits such as the WIC program should receive funding. As if that would make it all better, yeah right.
"18–35% of Medicaid-eligible women would have had an abortion but carried their pregnancies to term because there is no public funding for abortions."
Wouldn't this suggest that the pro-lifers' restrictions on abortion availability result in women not having abortions? I always argue that if a woman needs an abortion, she get one that is cheaper or less safe... and that criminalizing it isn't going to reduce the number of abortions- just drive them underground. But this statistic makes me think that women like Rosie Jimenez are a rare exception. Can anyone help me reconcile this?
Wouldn't this suggest that the pro-lifers' restrictions on abortion availability result in women not having abortions? I always argue that if a woman needs an abortion, she get one that is cheaper or less safe... and that criminalizing it isn't going to reduce the number of abortions- just drive them underground. But this statistic makes me think that women like Rosie Jimenez are a rare exception. Can anyone help me reconcile this?
If you change your argument from "women will have unsafe abortions if abortion is illegal" to "abortions will only become less safe if it's made illegal," you'll get the same point across.
I think it would be more likely that a woman who can't get a safe abortion done by a doctor would induce abortion herself than go to someone else to do it for her. It's unlikely that you would hear about a woman who died in her house from inducing abortion. I think what makes Rosie Jimenez a rare exception is the fact that her death was publicized.
Um, how about a little respect for the dead? His body is barely cold. I can understand not agreeing with a politician's positions, but ...
"Good riddance, you filthy fuck."
... is uncalled for.
Eh, he's dead. It's not hurting him.
He didn't respect any of us--our rights to determine our fates and what happens to our bodies. So I didn't have any respect for him while he was alive. I don't see why him dropping dead should all of a sudden garner any respect.
Good riddance. That is all.
No, Dave. Why do the dead deserve "respect" any more than the living? Just 'cause he's dead we're supposed to hold our tongues and forget that he was a force for evil while alive? Uh uh.
The damage is done. It doesn't really matter that he's dead because his legacy is one of anti-choice policies that hurt women (not to mention the Clinton garbage).
So again, good riddance, you filthy fuck. Say hi to Falwell for us; I'm guessing that if there's an afterlife you're both in the same place.
I have no respect whatsoever for Henry Hyde. Goodbye and good riddance, you disgusting anti-choice scum!
"Just 'cause he's dead we're supposed to hold our tongues and forget that he was a force for evil while alive?"
No, because he's recently dead. There is a time and place for bashing a person's positions. When the friends and family of that person are grieving is not that time.
I'll see you in hell, asshole.
Ya know- I'm moved to comment again, after having read some of the previous comments.
Sorry you're dead, Mister Hyde. That must suck for your family and loved ones. I mean no disrespect towards the dead, but...
It seems that Mr. Hyde spent a great deal of his time actively legislating against my human (I am a woman! Women are humans!)rights.
Clearly, Mr. Hyde thought I am a sub human chump. He thinks (thought) I am some kind of second class.... intellect who can't understand the abstracts, let alone the philosophical ramifications of CHOICE- that dickweed clearly hated me, and wanted to Unwoman me. Or perhaps, reduce me to my biological componants.
Screw you, Hyde- I'm more than my naughty bits.
Anyone who would want to force me to continue an unwanted pregnancy hates me. I tend to take shit like that personally.
So fuck you, Hyde! I'm glad you're dead.
You can't hurt women in hell. And you know what, Anti-choicers?
It's on.
Mr. Hyde thought I didn't know my own mind. That stupid asslock assumed he knew better than I do about how to run my very person! That's an staggering insult! Blarrrrrrrrrgh!
So with all due respect, I'ma still gonna say- Fuck off, Henry Hyde! Hyde was a dickshine who hated me and others who identify as female, and he can fuck off.
Guess what, Forced Pregnancy Advocates- yawl friggin' piss me off, too.
(*NEWSFLASH* WOMEN ARE PEOPLE)
Fuck you, Hyde. I'm looking forward to slaughtering you in one of the demon dimennions!
Ya know- I'm moved to comment again, after having read some of the previous comments.
Sorry you're dead, Mister Hyde. That must suck for your family and loved ones. I mean no disrespect towards the dead, but...
It seems that Mr. Hyde spent a great deal of his time actively legislating against my human (I am a woman! Women are humans!)rights.
Clearly, Mr. Hyde thought I am a sub human chump. He thinks (thought) I am some kind of second class.... intellect who can't understand the abstracts, let alone the philosophical ramifications of CHOICE- that dickweed clearly hated me, and wanted to Unwoman me. Or perhaps, reduce me to my biological componants.
Screw you, Hyde- I'm more than my naughty bits.
Anyone who would want to force me to continue an unwanted pregnancy hates me. I tend to take shit like that personally.
So fuck you, Hyde! I'm glad you're dead.
You can't hurt women in hell. And you know what, Anti-choicers?
It's on.
Mr. Hyde thought I didn't know my own mind. That stupid asslock assumed he knew better than I do about how to run my very person! That's an staggering insult! Blarrrrrrrrrgh!
So with all due respect, I'ma still gonna say- Fuck off, Henry Hyde! Hyde was a dickshine who hated me and others who identify as female, and he can fuck off.
Guess what, Forced Pregnancy Advocates- yawl friggin' piss me off, too.
(*NEWSFLASH* WOMEN ARE PEOPLE)
Fuck you, Hyde. I'm looking forward to slaughtering you in one of the demon dimennions!
Ya know- I'm moved to comment again, after having read some of the previous comments.
Sorry you're dead, Mister Hyde. That must suck for your family and loved ones. I mean no disrespect towards the dead, but...
It seems that Mr. Hyde spent a great deal of his time actively legislating against my human (I am a woman! Women are humans!)rights.
Clearly, Mr. Hyde thought I am a sub human chump. He thinks (thought) I am some kind of second class.... intellect who can't understand the abstracts, let alone the philosophical ramifications of CHOICE- that dickweed clearly hated me, and wanted to Unwoman me. Or perhaps, reduce me to my biological componants.
Screw you, Hyde- I'm more than my naughty bits.
Anyone who would want to force me to continue an unwanted pregnancy hates me. I tend to take shit like that personally.
So fuck you, Hyde! I'm glad you're dead.
You can't hurt women in hell. And you know what, Anti-choicers?
It's on.
Mr. Hyde thought I didn't know my own mind. That stupid asslock assumed he knew better than I do about how to run my very person! That's an staggering insult! Blarrrrrrrrrgh!
So with all due respect, I'ma still gonna say- Fuck off, Henry Hyde! Hyde was a dickshine who hated me and others who identify as female, and he can fuck off.
Guess what, Forced Pregnancy Advocates- yawl friggin' piss me off, too.
(*NEWSFLASH* WOMEN ARE PEOPLE)
Fuck you, Hyde. I'm looking forward to slaughtering you in one of the demon dimennions!
Ya know- I'm moved to comment again, after having read some of the previous comments.
Sorry you're dead, Mister Hyde. That must suck for your family and loved ones. I mean no disrespect towards the dead, but...
It seems that Mr. Hyde spent a great deal of his time actively legislating against my human (I am a woman! Women are humans!)rights.
Clearly, Mr. Hyde thought I am a sub human chump. He thinks (thought) I am some kind of second class.... intellect who can't understand the abstracts, let alone the philosophical ramifications of CHOICE- that dickweed clearly hated me, and wanted to Unwoman me. Or perhaps, reduce me to my biological componants.
Screw you, Hyde- I'm more than my naughty bits.
Anyone who would want to force me to continue an unwanted pregnancy hates me. I tend to take shit like that personally.
So fuck you, Hyde! I'm glad you're dead.
You can't hurt women in hell. And you know what, Anti-choicers?
It's on.
Mr. Hyde thought I didn't know my own mind. That stupid asslock assumed he knew better than I do about how to run my very person! That's an staggering insult! Blarrrrrrrrrgh!
So with all due respect, I'ma still gonna say- Fuck off, Henry Hyde! Hyde was a dickshine who hated me and others who identify as female, and he can fuck off.
Guess what, Forced Pregnancy Advocates- yawl friggin' piss me off, too.
(*NEWSFLASH* WOMEN ARE PEOPLE)
Fuck you, Hyde. I'm looking forward to slaughtering you in one of the demon dimennsions!
Wow, So sorry about the multiple posts. Clearly, there's something I'm missing. Sorry, sorry.