Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
House Democrats voted this week to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, fulfilling the fears of pro-life voters across the nation. The longstanding legislative provision for decades ensured U.S. taxpayer dollars don’t go to funding abortions.
For more than 40 years, it has had bipartisan support. But 32 out of 33 Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee voted to eliminate the amendment, rejecting the conscience rights of pro-life Americans.
In April, pro-life Democrats across the country had rallied in an attempt to save it.
The Hyde Amendment has been included in appropriations legislation on a bipartisan basis every year since 1976. It has been credited with saving more than 2.4 million lives, with approximately 60,000 lives saved each year, according to more than 20 peer-reviewed studies.
President Biden had been a strong supporter of the Hyde Amendment, but he reversed that position since moving into the White House. U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said it shows how far Biden has moved to the left.
“Now he has thrown the taxpayers under the bus and is also actively – when you start to subsidize abortion, you encourage more of it and he’s very much changed his tune on that,” he said. “So it’s very disappointing.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., echoed Moolenaar’s statement in a speech on the Senate floor.
“For decades, nearly his entire career, then-Senator Joe Biden was a reliable supporter of Hyde protections,” he said. “But a couple of years ago on the presidential campaign trail, our former colleague changed his tune. He let the demands of the increasingly radical left overcome a principle he had held literally for decades.”
McConnell said Biden’s opposition to the Hyde Amendment is just another way the current administration sold itself as moderate and unifying to voters but “is now spiraling way, way to the left.” He also said Republicans would continue to resist the effort to get rid of the amendment. He promised his party would “continue standing up for millions of Americans who don’t want the government laundering their hard-earned money to abortion providers.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
