On Thursday, over 170 members of Congress signed a letter to President Biden urging him to include the historical bipartisan-supported Hyde Amendment in the 2022 budget to protect taxpayer dollars from funding abortion.
The Hyde Amendment, which was first enacted in 1977, has been consistently supported by every president, Republican and Democrat, since President Jimmy Carter. That all changed on May 28 when Biden’s proposed spending budget was released and lawmakers were made aware that the Hyde Amendment and other pieces of pro-life protection were omitted.
Since then, a movement has been underway by many pro-life lawmakers to demand Biden reimplement the Hyde Amendment in the upcoming budget.
“It is an affront to the majority of Americans who do not want their tax dollars funding abortion on demand resulting in the death of children in the womb,” the letter states.
I and over 170 of my colleagues sent this letter to @POTUS urging him to protect the bipartisan Hyde Amendment and side with the majority of Americans who oppose taxpayer-funded abortions. https://t.co/tjRqWMaJhA pic.twitter.com/GNPQcJeL67
— Rep. Glenn Grothman (@RepGrothman) July 6, 2021
The letter, which was circulated by Rep. Glenn Grotham (R-WI) on Twitter, included several other pointers regarding Biden’s snub of the amendment, including his own hypocrisy on the issue.
“We know you understand this. You get it – or at least you once did. Years ago, you wrote a constituent explaining that a law against funding for abortion would ‘protect both the woman and her unborn child.’ You wrote: ‘I have consistently – on no fewer than 50 occasions – voted against federal funding of abortions...those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them,’” the letter states.
Up until 2019, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment. It was shortly after he announced his bid for the presidency and was predicted as the frontrunner on the Democratic ticket that he denounced the longstanding, bipartisan amendment.
It doesn’t stop there. Biden’s stance on abortion has recently put him, as well as other pro-choice Catholic politicians, at odds with the Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is currently convening to draft a statement outlining parameters that could prohibit politically pro-choice lawmakers from receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion. However, Biden’s Washington, D.C. parish came forward acknowledging that they will not refuse communion to any Mass attendees.
Other signers of the letter include Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), Rep, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
“In your inauguration speech, you said that ‘the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.’ Mr. President, the dream of ‘justice for all’ cannot be achieved if death of a whole segment of society, unborn babies, is legally ignored,” the letter continues. “Americans should not be forced to fund an act that denies the most basic human right, the right to life, to unborn children.”