Two hundred House Republicans, accounting for nearly the entire caucus, signed on to a pledge to oppose a budget bill that eliminates the Hyde Amendment, the measure that prevents federal funding from being used on abortion services.

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“We cannot allow the Hyde Amendment and other important pro-life safeguards to be decimated by Congressional Democrats. Accordingly, we pledge to vote against any government funding bill that eliminates or weakens the Hyde Amendment or other current-law, pro-life appropriations provisions,” read the letter to House and Senate leadership, released by the Republican Study Committee. . . .

“Despite decades of consensus on this issue, radical Democrats have signaled they no longer have an interest in protecting the conscience rights of millions of Americans who do not want their hard-earned money used to pay for abortions. My colleagues and I demand congressional leaders protect the ban on taxpayer-funded abortions and save the Hyde Amendment,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks said in a statement.

With Democratic control of the House, Senate, and White House, President Biden is facing pressure from abortion-rights activists and politicians to end the longtime measure. Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, in December dubbed the Hyde Amendment a “discriminatory policy” and said that the current government funding year would be the “last year” that the Hyde Amendment remains law.

“Repealing these pro-life provisions would destroy nearly half a century of bipartisan consensus,” the letter from the Republican Study Committee said. “Each year since 1976, Congress has included Hyde protections in annually enacted appropriations. No president in American history has ever vetoed an appropriations bill due to its inclusion of the Hyde Amendment. Moreover, President Obama maintained the Hyde Amendment in each of his budget proposals. As recent as June 2019, former Vice President Joe Biden supported the Hyde Amendment and acknowledged that it works harmoniously with federal funding for women’s healthcare.” . . .

He told an American Civil Liberties Union organizer on the campaign trail that he supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, but then, his campaign told NBC News that he supports the amendment. A day later, Biden said that ” circumstances have changed.”

“If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code,” he said then. . . .

The 10 Republican members who did not sign the letter all have anti-abortion records or stated positions: Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, Andy Harris of Maryland, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Tom McClintock of California, Devin Nunes of California, Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, and Chris Smith of New Jersey.

(Excerpt from The Washington Examiner. Article by Emily Brooks. Photo Credit: Getty Images.)

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