The Hyde Amendment respects the consciences of the American people by prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds to pay for most elective abortions. It includes exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or maternal mortality risk. Since it does not fully protect all the unborn, it is not a perfect policy. However, as a bipartisan compromise, at least it is reducing the overall number of abortions and protecting us from being forced against our will to pay for the killing of the innocent. The Hyde Amendment is currently under attack by the White House and some members of Congress.

Since it is not permanent law, the Hyde Amendment must be joined each year to individual federal appropriations bills in order to take effect. Since 1976, three years after the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, this amendment has been signed into law every single year, regardless of whether the Congress or the White House were led by Republicans or Democrats. It is based on a consensus that taxpayers should not be forced to fund this procedure that so many Americans find ethically objectionable.

Abortion is the intentional destruction of an innocent and defenseless human baby. It is a wrongful and violent attack on life. It is an intrinsic evil, meaning that it is never permitted or morally justified, regardless of individual circumstances or intentions. Abortion is not health care and it is not a basic human right. The unborn child is a patient, not a disease or an unjust aggressor. The child’s fundamental right to life comes from God, not from some person’s decision that they want to accept the child.

The Hyde Amendment is a bipartisan provision that has been part of federal appropriations legislation for 45 years. It has also served as a model for many other federal policies that prohibit the government from funding abortions in other areas, such as in foreign assistance programs and community health programs. It is estimated that over 2.4 million children are believed to have been born because of the protections of the Hyde Amendment.(1)

The Hyde Amendment leaves the legislatures of all fifty states free to provide state funds for abortion if they wish. Most states have chosen to follow the criteria of the Hyde Amendment.(2) Laws like the Hyde Amendment leave everyone, including those who want to pay for other people’s abortions, free to act on their own convictions.

All women deserve the resources they need to fully care for their babies and to welcome them in a loving, stable environment. Government money would be much better spent supporting women in unexpected or challenging pregnancies and struggling new mothers than to end the lives of their children. The Hyde Amendment has been broadly supported by the majority of low-income women in this country, including women of color.(3)

Some supporters of abortion claim that the Hyde Amendment is racist. Actually, the opposite is true. The abortion industry in this country disproportionately targets people of color and substantially reduces births to women of color to a much greater extent than births to other women. African American and Hispanic women have far more abortions as a percentage of the total in this country than their representative percentages in the U.S. population. Abortion clinics in the U.S. are disproportionately located in or near minority neighborhoods.(4) Since the Hyde Amendment has the effect of reducing the number of abortions in general, it is protecting unborn children of color who are disproportionately threatened by abortion.

For many years as a U.S. senator, Joe Biden supported the Hyde Amendment. However, in June 2019, as a candidate for president facing considerable pressure from abortion supporters, he reversed his previous position and called for the elimination of the Hyde Amendment. The fiscal year 2022 budget that he recently presented to Congress does not include the Hyde Amendment. While there are several aspects of his budget proposal that aim to help vulnerable people, his proposal takes away the prior protection of the most vulnerable human beings of all – those who are growing in the womb.

Because the life-saving policy of the Hyde Amendment is now under grave threat of reversal, this is a critical moment for pro-life Americans to let our voices be heard. The Hyde Amendment and similar policies are now facing the most serious threat to their existence since being enacted.

I encourage everyone to sign a petition to save the Hyde Amendment. This petition can be found at www.notaxpayerabortion.com. It will be sent to members of Congress and their staffs. It urges Congress to ensure that the Hyde Amendment and all similar life-saving appropriations riders remain in place during the 117th Congress and beyond. The petition says, “Do not force Americans to subsidize the taking of innocent life. Oppose any bill, including any appropriations bill, that expands taxpayer funding of abortion.”

The month of July 2021 is a critical moment in the consideration of this matter by the U.S. Congress. Spread the word. Americans should not be made to subsidize the taking of innocent human life.


1. Michael J. New, “Addendum to Hyde@40,” Charlotte Lozier Institute, July 21, 2020.
2. Guttmacher Institute, “State Funding of Abortions Under Medicaid,” Sept. 1, 2020.
3. “Do you support or oppose the Hyde Amendment?,” YouGov 2016 Poll.
4. Willis L. Krumholz, “Yes, Planned Parenthood Targets and Hurts Poor Black Women,” The Federalist, Feb. 18, 2016.