House Democrats have abandoned one of their biggest voting blocks — women. There is a bill that is up for a vote in the lower chamber and it does not include axing the controversial Hyde Amendment. Since the mid-70s, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funding for abortion.
The Hyde Amendment found its way into the national spotlight last week as Democratic primary frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden flip-flopped on whether or not he supports the measure.
The house rules committee took out an amendment that Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley introduced that would overturn the Hyde Amendment. The minibus that will not include the elimination of the Hyde Amendment will cover several services like labor, health and human services, defense, state, foreign operations, and energy and water development.
The Democrats chose to keep the Hyde Amendment in the proposal so as not to drive a wedge between them and the Republicans who are staunch supporters of the amendment. This bill needs to be passed before Labor Day to keep the government open.
“I wish we never had a Hyde Amendment, but it is the law of the land right now and I don’t see that there is an opportunity to get rid of it with the current occupant of the White House and some in the Senate“, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Manu Raju of CNN.
However, the representative of San Francisco promises that Democrats have tricks up their sleeves to ax the amendment.
“We have to get people ready … we have to get rid of that.”
Enter the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance bill which would allow coverage for abortion in programs such as the Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance.
