The Legal Obstacle to Federal Abortion Efforts After Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade Ruling
Law enforcement officers watch protesters from behind security fencing near the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 27
Photographer: Eric Lee/BloombergA new public policy issue -- whether the federal government can find ways to help Americans access abortions now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned -- is running up against a long-time restriction on federal dollars. The Hyde Amendment, first enacted 45 years ago, and related provisions restrict the use of federal funds for abortions. It’s emerged as an obstacle to efforts to maintain abortion services for women in states that outlaw the procedure.
It’s the most prominent among a set of abortion-related restrictions on annual federal government spending. It was sponsored by the late Representative Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, and attached as an amendment to an annual health spending bill in 1976. The purpose was to prevent Medicaid -- the federal-state health insurance program for low-income Americans -- from spending federal dollars on abortion services. The amendment or some version of it has been included in annual appropriations bills ever since. (President Joe Biden, a supporter of abortion rights, voted for bills extending the Hyde Amendment and related provisions dozens of times during his 36-year career in the Senate.) Hyde spawned additional restrictions in other federal appropriations and authorization bills.