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Published August 17, 2016 - 12:05am
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Democrats seek reversal of ban on federal abortion funding | West Hawaii Today
For years the Hyde amendment has made it very difficult for low-income women to obtain a legal abortion that is much more accessible for woman with good incomes.
From: Fund Abortion Now . Org
NEW YORK (AP) — The law that bans federal funding for Medicaid coverage of most abortions is now in the spotlight some 40 years after it was passed by Congress, emerging as an election issue in the national debate over the procedure.
First approved in 1976, and renewed annually ever since as part of the congressional appropriations process, the Hyde Amendment makes exceptions in cases of rape or incest, or when a pregnancy endangers a women’s life.
For most of its existence, the amendment had broad bipartisan support in Congress, but that’s now changed. At their recent national convention, Democrats for the first time included in their platform a call for the Hyde Amendment to be repealed. Their presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, is embracing that stance, even as it risks creating friction within the party.
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In the House, Democrats have introduced a bill that would nullify the Hyde Amendment and require the federal government to ensure abortion coverage in public health insurance programs, including Medicaid. No one from the chamber’s Republican majority is among the measure’s 119 co-sponsors.
Despite the political obstacles, advocates of repeal are upbeat as they succeed in drawing more attention to the amendment.
“I don’t think we’re as far away as people might think,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a leading abortion-rights supporter. “We got tired of tacitly accepting that a ban on Medicaid money was acceptable.”
Read more:
Democrats seek reversal of ban on federal abortion funding | West Hawaii Today
For years the Hyde amendment has made it very difficult for low-income women to obtain a legal abortion that is much more accessible for woman with good incomes.
From: Fund Abortion Now . Org
The Hyde Amendment has a disproportionate impact on women of color, both because women of color are more likely to live in poverty and to rely on Medicaid for health care, and because women of color are also more likely to seek abortion care.
And immigrants, both citizens and non-citizens, are far more likely to live in poverty than those born in the United States. Most immigrant women, even those who have citizenship, are excluded from federal Medicaid altogether.
Because of the Hyde Amendment, low-income people sell their belongings, go hungry for weeks as they save up their grocery money, or risk eviction by using their rent money to pay for an abortion.
Some of them never manage to get the money they need to pay for their abortion – which means that they are forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
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