Statement: More Than 40 Groups Condemn Inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in U.S. House Spending Bill

July 7, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Alexa Garcia-Ditta, alexa@conwaystrategic.com, 512-861-8079

Washington D.C.—Today, 44 reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations released the following statement in response to the Labor Health and Human Services Appropriations bill that includes the Hyde Amendment:

“Today, the pro-choice majority in the U.S. House of Representatives chose to introduce its annual spending bills with the Hyde Amendment included. We say: enough is enough. For 43 years, the Hyde Amendment has banned abortion coverage for people enrolled in Medicaid health insurance. It is long past time for our elected officials to put an end to abortion coverage bans once and for all, so no one is denied abortion care because of how much money they make or how they get their health insurance.

Bans on abortion coverage, like the Hyde Amendment, have long disproportionately impacted Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities and the time has come to end these bans. We need health care that works for everyone. There is too much at stake to stand in the way of someone’s decision of whether to become a parent. Anti-abortion politicians and the Trump administration are working to push abortion care out of reach entirely, which most harms women of color.

BIPOC communities have long bore the brunt of the racial and economic inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The threats to reproductive health care, including abortion, have never been more present, as our nation faces an unprecedented public health emergency while also experiencing a long-needed reckoning on how systemic racism permeates our society and institutions.

Our movement is strong and the public is with us. Recent polling shows that the majority of national voters support Medicaid coverage for abortion, even more so in battleground districts. 84% of women of color voters say it’s extremely important that candidates support women making their own decisions about their reproductive health.

This Congress has chosen to ignore what women of color have been saying for decades, and what the majority of national voters now agree with – however we feel about abortion, no one should be denied access to it just because they are struggling to make ends meet.”

The following organizations have signed on to the statement:

All* Above All

Abortion Care Network

Advocates for Youth

American Civil Liberties Union

Black Women’s Health Imperative

Center for Reproductive Rights

Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at Berkeley Law

CHOICES.

FFRF

Global Justice Center

Guttmacher Institute

Ibis Reproductive Health

If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

Ipas

Jane’s Due Process

Jewish Women International

NARAL Pro-Choice America

NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum

National Center for Lesbian Rights

National Council of Jewish Women

National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association

National Health Law Program

National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH)

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

National Network of Abortion Funds

National Organization for Women

National Partnership for Women & Families

National Women’s Health Network

National Women’s Law Center

Northwest Abortion Access Fund

Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health

PAI

People For the American Way

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Population Institute

Power to Decide

Pregnancy Options Wisconsin: Education, Resources & Support

Progress Florida

URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity

Women’s Medical Fund (Wisconsin)

Yellowhammer Fund