For nearly 50 years, Congress has denied abortion coverage for people enrolled in Medicaid and other public health insurance programs under the Hyde Amendment. Over the years, the amendment has continually expanded to deny coverage for federal employees, people in immigrant detention centers, Native Americans, and other groups.
On May 29, we joined 50 other organizations in signing a letter that asks Congress to support appropriations bills that do not include the Hyde Amendment or any other restrictions on abortion coverage. We also advocate for a permanent solution to these restrictions: passage of the EACH Act.
The Letter
May 29, 2024
Dear Chair Murray, Ranking Member Collins, Chair Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As organizations that believe each of us should be able to make decisions about pregnancy and parenting that are best for our families without political interference, the undersigned organizations urge you to put forth appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2025 that do not include the Hyde Amendment or any other restrictions on abortion care and coverage.
Each of us should be able to live, work, and make decisions about our health and our future with dignity and respect. When people can make decisions about their own reproductive health care, including whether and when to have children, they have more control over their economic security. However, policymakers have enacted bans on insurance coverage of abortion that push the decision to access abortion out of reach for many, particularly those working to make ends meet. Since the first passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, the appropriations process has been used as a vehicle to systematically deny abortion care to people across the country. Studies show that when policymakers place restrictions on Medicaid coverage of abortion, it forces one in four poor women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.1 Additionally, a woman who seeks an abortion, but is denied, is more likely to fall into poverty than one who is able to get an abortion.2
Access to abortion is in crisis. Following the Dobbs decision, 14 states have enacted total bans on abortion and several others have near-total bans on abortion care.3 These bans are particularly devastating for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, for women, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, and young people. These communities are also the most harmed by the Hyde Amendment and other coverage bans.
We urge you, as leaders of the Appropriations Committee, to draft and pass federal spending bills that end the shameful legacy of the Hyde Amendment and related abortion coverage restrictions. Together, these bans restrict the health coverage of more than 7 million women, over half of whom are women of color. We ask that FY 2025 appropriations legislation be free of abortion coverage restrictions, including those that impact the following populations: (i) Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries; (ii) federal employees and their dependents; (iii) Peace Corps volunteers; (iv) Native American women (iv) people in federal prisons and detention centers, including those detained for immigration purposes; and (v) low-income women in the District of Columbia through the use of local funds. Additionally, we urge you to reject any efforts to add new policy riders that seek to undermine access to health care.
We are fighting for a future in which abortion is affordable, available, and supported for anyone who seeks care — and to ensure that everyone can live, thrive, and raise families in healthy communities. Someone’s ability to get the care they need and to define their own path should never depend on where they live, who they are, or how much they earn. Yet the Hyde Amendment and related policies have harmed our families, our communities, and our health for far too long. We implore Congress to lift abortion coverage bans and end the Hyde Amendment. People working to make ends meet, including women of color, LGBTQ people, and young people are demanding bold action from their Members of Congress, and we look forward to working with you to end these harmful policies.
Sincerely,
Abortion Action Missouri
Abortion Care Network
ACCESS Reproductive Justice
Advocates for Youth
American Federation of Teachers
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Black Women for Wellness Action Project
Bold Futures NM
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
California Women’s Law Center
Center for Biological Diversity
Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity & Reproductive Rights (COLOR) Courage California
Guttmacher Institute
Hadassah
Ibis Reproductive Health
Ipas
Jobs with Justice
League of Women Voters of the United States
Legal Voice
Medical Students for Choice
Midwest Access Coalition
National Abortion Federation
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
National Health Law Program
National Partnership for Women & Families
New Voices for Reproductive Justice
Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health
Our Justice
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Planned Parenthood Federal of America
Positive Women’s Network-USA
Power to Decide
Pregnancy Justice
Pro-Choice Ohio
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
REPRO Rising Virginia
Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America)
Reproductive Health Access Project
RHITES (Reproductive Health Initiative for Telehealth Equity & Solutions), a fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change
The Afiya Center
The Century Foundation Health Equity and Reform Team
Union for Reform Judaism
Women of Reform Judaism
Women with a Vision
Women’s March
YWCA Kalamazoo
- Stanley K. Henshaw, Theodore J. Joyce, Amanda Dennis, Lawrence B. Finer and Kelly Blanchard. Restrictions on Medicaid Funding for Abortions: A Literature Review. (Guttmacher Institute, 2009). Available at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/MedicaidLitReview.pdf. ↩︎
- Diana Greene Foster, PhD, Sarah C. M. Roberts, DrPH and Jane Mauldon, PhD. Socioeconomic consequences of abortion compared to unwanted birth. Abstract from the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting 2012. Available at https://apha.confex.com/apha/140am/webprogram/Paper263858.html. ↩︎
- State Bans on Abortion Throughout Pregnancy (Guttmacher Institute, May 1, 2024). Available at: https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/state-policies-abortion-bans#:~:text=14%20states%20have%20a%20total,some%20 point%20after%2018%20weeks. ↩︎
