35 years of Hyde: Why the fight for true abortion access has only just begun

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the passage of the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is a piece of legislation that effectively turned access to abortion into a class issue by banning the use of federal funding for abortions. The Hyde Amendment also cemented the marginalization of abortion from the rest of health care, lending a lot of weight to the climate around abortion we see today.

For those who don’t know, the Hyde Amendment restricts the use of federal funds toward abortion. Primarily this effects people whose health care is provided by the government: the low-income, the disabled and those in the military. That’s a lot of people who have to pay out of pocket for this procedure, and the burden is high.

The bottom line is that unless you live in one of the few states (it used to be many, and over the years has been whittled down) that puts its state dollars toward covering abortion care for low-income people, you are on your own. Most private insurance plans do cover the procedure, so it’s real discrimination toward those folks.

In honor (or possibly protest) of the anniversary today, we’re partnering with RH Reality Check and Advocates for Youth on a blog carnival. We’re asking folks to post about the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment today, their own experiences with accessing abortion, or anything else the topic inspires.

We’re inviting anyone in the Feministing community to post on the community site with their blog carnival contributions, and we’ll have other content from the carnival cross-posted there as well.

Let’s not let anyone forget how far we are from true access for all.

Two blogathon posts so far:

Thirty-Five Years After Hyde, It’s Time to Start a New Conversation on Abortion

The Hyde Amendment at 35: Lessons for Activists