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Party USA: Statements |
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The
Hyde Amendment and Obama’s Health Care Bill: Two Wrongs Make a
Disaster for Abortion Rights
by the SPUSA
Women's Commission
A major provision of the health care bill being put forward by the
Obama administration—and opportunistically maneuvered through the House
of Representatives, and next the Senate, by the Democratic
leadership—shows
just how disregarding the US government continues to be when it comes
to abortion rights.
This provision would expand the scope of the Hyde Amendment—that nasty
piece of national legislation that since 1976 has prohibited the use of
federal funds for abortion—to include private health insurance plans
partially
subsidized by the federal government. This means that additional
millions of women would be denied abortion as one of their health care
options. Its inclusion in the health care bill is an outrageous
capitulation by the Obama
administration to the Catholic Church, religious fundamentalists, and
Congressional conservatives and hypocrites of both the Democratic and
Republican parties. We must fight back: No national health care
system that denies the right to abortion on demand! Repeal the
Hyde Amendment!
Here is some background on the Hyde Amendment. Named for its
sponsor, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill), this law began wending its
way through Congress in June 1976, as an amendment to the Health,
Education, and Welfare (now the Health and Human Services)
budget. Designed to exclude women on Medicaid from full
reproductive health services by prohibiting federal funding for
abortions, it was the first direct attack on the Roe v. Wade Supreme
Court decision of 1973. After political jockeying by Republicans
and Democrats, the bill passed in September 1976, after court
challenges to its constitutionality were rejected, the Hyde
Amendment went into effect in August 1977. It was both a response
to, and encouragement for, agitation and violence by such virulent
anti-abortion groups as Operation Rescue and Army of God.
Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has been inserted each year into the HHS
budget, often without debate. That is, it has been kept on the
books for over 30 years thanks to Democratic and Republican
Congress-people and
Presidents, alike. In the 1980’s, Congress widened its scope to
include federal employees and their dependents, Native Americans,
military
personnel and their dependents, federal prisoners, and low-income
residents of the
District of Columbia.
Now Congress is at it again, this time using the motivation and
arguments underlying the Hyde Amendment to deny even more women
abortion access.
Clearly, immediate actions are called for—not only to block the
anti-abortion provision of the Obama health care bill, but also to
demand the repeal of the Hyde Amendment.
So join us to get the word out about the Hyde Amendment and the Obama
health care bill. Let’s make sure that the public is aware of how
Obama and the Democratic leadership are curtailing women’s rights in
the guise of health care reform. Let it be widely known that the
Democratic Party has given up all pretence of being pro-choice.
The radical Left needs to offer an alternative to the liberal,
mainstream organizations such as NARAL and NOW, whose placating
strategies make them complicit in the ongoing assaults on abortion
rights. From our position
outside the Democratic Party, we can and must present the much-needed
voice of socialist feminism—one that places abortion access in the
context of socialized health care, human rights, social and economic
justice, and
independent political action.
More travesties like the Hyde Amendment and the anti-abortion provision
of the Obama health care bill will be perpetrated unless we continue to
demand an end to restrictive state and federal laws, to the wholly
inadequate
number of abortion facilities and providers, and to health care
discrimination levelled against young, low-income, and immigrant women,
and women of color.
Only our persistent and militant grassroots efforts will bring about
the repeal of the Hyde Amendment and the defeat of the Obama health
care bill. Through collective action, we can achieve our
fundamental objective: a comprehensive system of socialized health care
within a society that guarantees the right to reproductive freedom and
health care justice and equity, and that ends all forms of violence
against women.
November 20, 2009
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