In the 40 years since the Hyde Amendment was first passed by Congress, the discriminatory rider, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, has prevented millions of American women – mostly poor and African-American – from exercising their Constitutional right to make their own healthcare decisions.
On September 28, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif), joined by 70 other members of Congress and more than 120 legislative co-sponsors, demanded the Hyde Amendment be officially and irrevocably removed from future bills.
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits using federal funds to pay for abortions. (Courtesy photo)
“From the moment this rider was introduced, it overwhelmingly impacted women of color, students, and women in the military,” Lee told the AFRO. “It is past time for politicians to get out of the reproductive decisions of women. Forty years is 40 years too many.”
Issues of access to, affordability of, and moral objections against abortions (as genocide) have permeated Black communities for decades. As early as 1971, Newsweek journalist Samuel F. Yette described government programs for the Black poor which stressed the necessity for birth control as the best means of alleviating hunger, as well as recommendations for mandatory abortions for unwed mothers by members of a 1969 White House Conference on the topic. The effort, according to Yette’s book, The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America, was blocked by Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who denounced abortion as “legalized murder.”
“Whatever a person’s personal opinion of abortion, unless they intend to rear a child on behalf of the woman carrying it, they have no voice in her decisions,” Washington, D.C. resident Walter Bridgman told the AFRO. “Neither the federal government or the corporations that disallow birth control pills under their prescription coverage, have legitimate authority to support Hyde.”
However, the overriding concern with the Hyde Amendment, following the Roe v Wade decision of 1973, which afforded all women the right to access safe reproductive terminations, was that it effectively eliminated that right for women whose health insurance plans were secured through the federal government. “We have to have enough human dignity and respect to not force others or limit their rights because we may not agree with their decisions,” Congressman Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) told the AFRO. “After four decades has to go. Laws of the country must be applied equally to every American and since low-income women and their families are more likely to rely on federal dollars to gain access to get the care or services they need the government is interfering.”
Calling the rider’s attachment to everything from head-start programs to road construction an “issue of discrimination,” Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) said she had not seen such aggressive tactics to interfere in citizens’ rights since the days of Joe McCarthy. She did, however, note the push to use the electoral process to dismantle the Hyde Amendment.
“Trump wanted to make sure the Hyde Amendment was permanent and these younger generations understand that elections really matter. It is an opportunity for women to vote for a candidate that understands they are not politically expendable,” Schakowsky told the AFRO. “This rider has been devastating to all federal employees, Peace Corp volunteers, women in federal prisons, as well as those students, poor women, women of color.”