LWVUS Joins Letter Urging Congress Remove Hyde Amendment from FY25 Budget

The League signed onto a letter to US Congress urging them to ensure that the Hyde Amendment is not included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget. The Hyde Amendment is an appropriations rider that prohibits the use of federal funding for most abortions. As a result, most people enrolled in public health programs cannot use their healthcare coverage to pay for abortion services.

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. 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.

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. 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,

See Attached Letter for Signatories