This week, President Donald Trump told House Republicans at their annual policy retreat to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment when making a deal with Democrats on Obamacare subsidies. The 1976 Hyde Amendment is a traditional appropriations bill rider that bans federal funds for most abortions and has reportedly saved more than 2.6 million lives since it was first implemented.
Nearly one year ago, President Trump signed an executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment to end forced taxpayer funding of abortion. The Hyde Amendment, as the order reads, has been enacted annually by Congress “reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice.”
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Now, President Trump is urging Republicans to compromise on abortion by potentially leaving out the Hyde Amendment in new Obamacare subsidies as some Democrats push to end the funding restrictions.
“Let the money go directly to the people,” said President Trump. “You have to be a little flexible on Hyde… You gotta work something …but you have to have flexibility.”
President Trump’s statement abandons Hyde’s basic principle of keeping American taxpayers from financially supporting the killing of human life. Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, and any compromise on protecting the most vulnerable among us—precious unborn children—is an outrageous betrayal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) stated Tuesday that Hyde protections must be included in any health care deal to have a chance at receiving 60 votes.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also said the Hyde standard was not going to change.
“I’m just not gonna allow that to happen,” Speaker Johnson reportedly stated.
Liberty Counsel Action (LCA) will oppose any congressional deal involving taxpayer funding for abortion. In October 2025, LCA was one of more than 100 pro-life groups who sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to cease all taxpayer funding of abortion through Obamacare.
Liberty Counsel Action Chairman Mat Staver said, “To protect innocent life, there should be no compromise on the Hyde Amendment. Legislative deals should never require abandoning protections for the unborn or forcing Americans to fund abortion against their conscience. Compromising on Hyde would cross a threshold not easily reversed. Once federal dollars flow toward abortion, even indirectly, unborn children would become more vulnerable, and taxpayers would become entangled in abortion’s moral catastrophe.”
“The protection of unborn life can never be treated as negotiable. Pro-life voters have long been assured that Hyde is a firm line, not a bargaining chip. President Trump’s urging for compromise and ‘flexibility’ on Hyde is a breach of trust. Either U.S. taxpayers fund death, or they don’t. Liberty Counsel Action will continue to oppose any health care ‘deal’ on Obamacare subsidies that permits the taxpayer funding of abortion that cruelly kills children in the womb and harms women,” stated Staver.
