GOP senators introduce bill to ban taxpayer funding for abortions

Republican lawmakers reintroduced a piece of legislation that would ban the use of federal funds for abortions or health coverage that includes abortion this week.

If passed, the bill would essentially codify a decades-old policy called the Hyde Amendment which has banned the use of any federal dollars on abortions since 1977.

There are two caveats, however. The Hyde Amendment does allow for federal funds to be spent on abortions if continuing a pregnancy endangers the life of the mother or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

The reintroduced bill would extend the restrictions to all federal funds and bar abortions from being performed in federal health care facilities or by a federal employee. It would also specify that federal health insurance plans that cover abortion services are not eligible for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

“Using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is wrong,” wrote Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who reintroduced the bill on Wednesday. “My Senate Republican colleagues and I will continue fighting to preserve life.”

It was also reintroduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The bill was first introduced in 2023 but failed make it out of a Senate committee.

The Hyde Amendment is not a permanent law but has been attached as a “rider” to the annual congressional appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services and has been renewed every year by Congress, according to health policy nonprofit KFF.

The policy has guided public funding for abortions under federal-state Medicaid programs. States are required to foot the bill for abortions that meet the federal exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Among the 36 states where abortion is legal, 19 follow the Hyde Amendment, while 17 states use state funds to pay for abortions for women beyond Hyde limitations, according to KFF.

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