50 Years Later, The Hyde Amendment Has Saved Millions From Abortion
Enacted 50 years ago this Sept. 30, the Hyde Amendment goes beyond just mere words. It has literally saved millions of lives.
Fifty years ago this Sept. 30, three years after the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, an Illinois congressman named Henry Hyde added a clause to an annual appropriations bill for the departments of health, education, and other related agencies.
That clause, despite continued efforts to remove it, stands to this day and ensures that any funds designated for those agencies spent on health coverage do not go toward elective abortions. The clause would become known as “The Hyde Amendment.”
Hyde, a staunch pro-life Catholic, wanted to ensure that taxpayers who opposed the taking of innocent human life would not be forced to violate their consciences by paying for abortions through their federal tax dollars. He believed this amendment was in alignment with previous legislative efforts to protect and defend unalienable rights.
Naturally, pro-abortion advocates sued, or launched legislative efforts, to have the amendment struck down. But despite their efforts, the Hyde Amendment remains — ironically, longer than the now overturned Roe v. Wade decision that inspired it, despite yearly challenges to its existence. In addition, the amendment was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 in the case of Harris v. McRae — the very court that had issued the Roe decision seven years before.
It has been estimated that the amendment has saved 2.6 million lives that would have never seen the light of day without the courage and foresight of Hyde. Before the amendment was enacted, nearly 300,000 abortions were performed annually and paid for with federal Medicaid funds.
In 2009, the Guttmacher Institute published a literature review of peer-reviewed studies on Medicaid funding restrictions for abortions. It found that out of 38 studies concerned with birth rates, one-fourth provided statistically significant evidence that the Hyde Amendment led to a decrease in abortion rates.
Thus, the Hyde Amendment goes beyond just words. It has literally saved millions of lives.
Hyde’s Faith --->READ MORE HERE
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The measure has been credited with saving over 2.5 million babies.
Fifty years ago, a Republican congressman from Illinois named Henry Hyde took action to successfully protect American dollars from being used to end the life of an unborn child.
To honor the lawmaker’s legacy, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) on Friday introduced a resolution calling for the continued support of the Hyde Amendment, a measure prohibiting the use of federal dollars to fund abortions. Lankford credits the amendment with saving over 2.5 million babies, according to a copy of a resolution first obtained by The Daily Wire.
Lankford’s resolution marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976. Since that time, the Hyde Amendment has been repeatedly passed, ensuring that federal dollars are not paying for abortions. In recent years, some Democrats have pushed to end the amendment and force Americans to pay for abortions.
“For 50 years, the Hyde Amendment has been an important protection for American taxpayers. Every child is valuable. No American should ever wonder if the check they’re sending to the IRS on April 15 will be used to pay for someone’s elective abortion,” Lankford told The Daily Wire. “Hyde was a bipartisan agreement five decades ago, and it has been included in appropriations bills every year since. We should keep that commitment in place.”
The resolution says its purpose is to recognize the Hyde Amendment’s “enduring legacy of saving the lives of more than 2,600,000 unborn children and respecting the conscience rights of the American people.” It adds that it wants to “encourage the people of the United States to reflect upon the history and significance of the Hyde Amendment and the loss of 63,000,000 babies through abortions that have taken place since Roe v. Wade.”
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced a companion resolution in the House.
“I had the honor of serving alongside Rep. Hyde in the House for more than two decades, and I can personally attest to his unrivaled brilliance, unparalleled compassion, and unwavering commitment to protecting and defending the rights of the unborn—the weakest and most vulnerable among us,” he said. --->READ MORE HERE
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