“The idea of rights is nothing but the conception of virtue applied to the world of politics.”130
—ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
In the three years following the Roe v. Wade decision, the federal government paid for abortions through Medicaid, covering about 300,000 abortion procedures each year. In 1974, this payment accounted for roughly one-third of all abortions nationwide. The burden placed on taxpayers was about $55 million per year.131 To much of the public, this was a bridge too far—being forced to pay for something as morally objectionable as abortions. A champion of this position emerged in the person of Illinois congressman Henry Hyde. He knew that he could not undo what the Supreme Court had ruled, and he knew that abortion had been codified as constitutional. He also knew that it was a completely different story to ask the public to pay for something so morally repugnant. His energetic efforts were to become a beacon of hope for the anti-abortion forces.
Representative Hyde sought to prevent the federal government from using taxpayers’ money to bankroll abortion operations across the country. The Hyde Amendment, as it came to be known, does just that. It prohibits federal money from being used to fund abortions. It protects most Americans from being forced to pay for an abortion that is not their own. In doing this, it also protects religious liberty as well as freedom of conscience. However, individual states could still fund abortions, and about sixteen states have done so. In those states, taxpayers do pay for women to get abortions.
But if you don’t live in one of those sixteen states, by and large, the individual has to pay for her own abortion. This is what the pro-abortion movement wants to change. The Left’s argument for federal funding of abortion is that abortion is a constitutional right in the same way that free speech is a right or freedom of religion is a right. Thus, the pro-choicer would argue that if something is a basic right and you can’t afford it, then the government should provide it to you. What is the point of having a right that cannot be exercised?
So, the pro-abortion argument goes, is it fair to deprive poor women of their constitutional right to abortion? This argument at first glance might seem to make sense, but upon reflection, it collapses. Let’s consider our basic rights. We have a First Amendment right to free speech. But ask yourself, is that funded by the government? If I can’t afford a newspaper or Internet, will the government pay for that for me? No. I have a First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Will the government build me a church if my friends and I can’t afford to put one up? No. I have a Second Amendment right to own a gun. Will the government buy me the gun and the ammunition? No. So down the list of rights we go, and it becomes clear that none of our fundamental rights are paid for by the government.
In practice, these rights are essentially protections against the government. If you think about the Bill of Rights, its formulations go something like this: Congress shall make no law restricting freedom of speech. Congress shall make no law restricting freedom of religion. The idea here is that the government is a threat to rights, and by placing limitations on government power, your rights are protected. Interestingly, with abortion, the Left wants to go in the other direction. They want to empower the government and want the government to have a bigger role—quite the opposite from limiting the government. By demanding that abortion is a right that must be funded, when our other fundamental rights are not, the Left is saying that they want abortion to be a super right. One may say that in the church of modern liberalism, abortion has become a sacrament.
Even if you think the government should pay for some aspect of health care, abortion is not a right, and it certainly is not health care. Abortion is killing.
For nearly forty years, the Hyde Amendment has been an effective obstacle to the pro-abortion agenda. We must protect Hyde and vote for politicians who support it because even mainstream Democrats are ready to take it down. Federal funds currently go to Planned Parenthood, not for abortion but for the other services it provides. But obviously, the federal funding given to it to cover its other costs allows it to continue its wholesale abortion operations. This is why beyond protecting the Hyde Amendment, we must vote to defund Planned Parenthood. There are other worthy women’s health organizations that actually provide health care to women that do not involve killing babies. I will say more about Planned Parenthood in a later chapter.
America has profoundly changed since 1973 when Roe v. Wade was decided. The Supreme Court decision was so radically pro-abortion that it didn’t even match the tide of the country at the time. Three years after Roe v. Wade, the Hyde Amendment was passed by the majority of Democrats, who controlled the House at the time. More than a hundred Democrats voted in favor of Hyde, providing more than half of the support for the bill. That same year, both presidential nominees—Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan—opposed abortion. Later, both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama endorsed the Hyde Amendment.
But times have changed. Every candidate in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president was anti–Hyde Amendment. Bernie Sanders tweeted, “There is #NoMiddle Ground on women’s rights. Abortion is a constitutional right. Under my Medicare for All Plan, we will repeal the Hyde Amendment.”132 Elizabeth Warren tweeted, “It’s time for Hyde to go.”133 Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted, “Repealing the Hyde Amendment is critical.”134 Cory Booker tweeted, “The Hyde Amendment is a threat to reproductive rights.”135 Pete Buttigieg echoed this when he told his supporters that we are all “lifted up” by stories about abortion and that his health care plan would “support, reimburse, and fund” abortion.136
In all the strident pro-abortion squalling among “progressive” Democrats, former vice president Joe Biden was most uncomfortable as he continued his forty-year tap dance on the abortion issue. He consistently voted for the Hyde Amendment throughout his Senate career, and in 1981 Biden supported a constitutional amendment that would enable the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In his 2007 book Promises to Keep, he wrote that he was “personally opposed” to abortion but that he didn’t have the “right to impose” his view on the rest of society. He stated that he wouldn’t support federal funding of abortion but that he was all of a sudden against a constitutional amendment to limit abortion. Now, he says he believes that abortion should be funded by taxpayers and describes it as “healthcare” and “a right.”137
It is increasingly clear that many Democratic politicians are either ideologues devoted to furthering the radical Left’s agenda, like Bernie Sanders, or simply hungry for power and change their positions in order to be the most popular, like Joe Biden. In any case, over the past several years, there has been a radicalization of the Democratic Party.
While the Democrats have not been able to take down the Hyde Amendment, they are trying their best to do so. If they take over the presidency, keep control of the House, and take the Senate, the Hyde Amendment is history. It might seem that the pro-choice movement would be content with abortion on demand, but no, the Democrats are pushing for abortion to be federally funded by you and me.
Ironically, the Hyde Amendment has been upheld by the Supreme Court. In the 1980 decision Harris v. McRae, the court held that Hyde did not contradict the Constitution and that states with Medicaid were not obligated to fund abortions. The American Center for Law and Justice says that “abortion advocates constantly argue that abortion is a decision between a woman and her doctor. Yet if the Hyde Amendment is repealed, every American will become involved in abortions through the use of our tax dollars. For those of us who believe life is precious no matter the circumstances, the consequences are dire.”138
Most Americans do not agree with the Democrats on this issue. A 2019 Marist poll found that only 39 percent of Americans supported taxpayer dollars funding abortion.139 Ultimately, it doesn’t make sense how someone else’s choices are zero percent my business and at the same time 100 percent my fiscal responsibility.