Hyde Amendment Must be Expanded to Stop Obamacare From Funding Abortions

Pro-life advocates are urging Congress to broaden the reach of the Hyde Amendment to prevent taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortions through Obamacare.

They are warning that the health care law represents the largest expansion of abortion funding in decades and are accusing Democrats of spreading misinformation about its protections.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading pro-life organization, has ramped up pressure on lawmakers to ensure any extension of Obamacare’s premium subsidies includes explicit Hyde-like safeguards, arguing that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) deliberately bypassed longstanding bipartisan restrictions on federal abortion funding.

The push comes as Republicans face internal debates over health care policy amid efforts to extend expiring subsidies set to lapse at the end of 2025.

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“For more than 40 years, the Hyde Amendment has ensured Americans are not forced to pay for abortions. But the ACA created the largest-ever expansion of abortion funding since the 1970s,” the group stated in a letter signed by nearly 90 pro-life organizations.

The letter emphasized that Obamacare was crafted to avoid annual appropriations bills, thus evading the Hyde Amendment’s prohibitions.

The Hyde Amendment, an annual rider attached to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, bars taxpayer funding for abortions and health insurance plans that cover them, with a documented impact of saving 2.6 million lives in Medicaid alone, according to pro-life estimates. While replicated in other federal programs through amendments like Helms, Dornan and Smith, it is not a permanent law and must be explicitly applied to new health care funding measures to prevent abortion subsidies.

Obamacare’s enactment in 2010 shattered this framework, pro-life groups contend.

Pro-life Democrats, led by then-Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan and Rep. Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania, proposed the Stupak-Pitts amendment to incorporate Hyde protections, which passed the House but was stripped by the Senate. In its place, Section 1303 of the law allows subsidies for plans covering elective abortions through what critics call an “accounting gimmick,” including a required separate payment or surcharge for abortion services.

Democrats maintain that this provision complies with Hyde by mandating insurers to collect separate payments for abortion coverage. However, SBA Pro-Life America argues there is no evidence insurers are enforcing the surcharge, and even if they were, taxpayers still subsidize the entire plan.

“When abortion is included in subsidized plans, the American taxpayer is subsidizing all coverage of the plan,” the group’s materials assert, likening it to purchasing comprehensive insurance without segregating costs for specific procedures.

President Barack Obama’s executive order promising to uphold Hyde principles failed to override the law, leaving the ACA as a glaring exception to nearly 50 years of federal policy limiting abortion funding.

Republicans have repeatedly sought to address the issue.

In 2011, the House passed the Protect Life Act by a 251-172 vote to bar Obamacare subsidies from funding abortion-covering plans. In 2017, the chamber approved the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act by 238-183, aiming to codify Hyde government-wide and strip subsidies from such plans.

The measure has remained a top priority in subsequent Congresses, with pro-life advocates calling for its Obamacare-specific provisions to be included in any subsidy extensions.

In an October letter echoed by allies like the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, SBA Pro-Life America reiterated: “For over 40 years, the Hyde amendment has protected the unborn by stopping taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortion and for health insurance plans that include abortion.”

The organization, joined by over 100 pro-life groups in recent advocacy, has vowed to oppose any spending bill funding Obamacare subsidies without full Hyde application.

“Extending subsidies without Hyde is a clear vote to expand abortion on demand, and every such vote will be scored by SBA Pro-Life America,” the group warned.

Recent congressional actions, including GOP rejections of Democratic demands to extend subsidies without restrictions during government funding fights, underscore the ongoing battle. SBA Pro-Life America praised Senate and House Republicans for holding the line in November, opposing measures that would continue funding abortions through Obamacare.

As negotiations over ACA subsidies intensify, pro-life leaders insist that preventing taxpayer-funded abortions must be a non-negotiable baseline for Republican-backed legislation, framing it as a restoration of bipartisan consensus eroded by Obamacare.