Despite Recent Win for Hyde Amendment, Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Back in FY 2023 Budget

Just a couple weeks after Congress re-inserted the pro-life measure known as the Hyde Amendment back into the federal budget for fiscal year 2022, which ends in September, the Biden administration has proposed a budget for the next fiscal year that once again attempts to remove the Hyde Amendment, forcing American taxpayers to fund abortions here and abroad.

As The Daily Citizen has previously reported, the Hyde Amendment has been an annual provision in Congress’ spending bills since 1976. It prevents taxpayer funds from funding abortion on demand through Medicaid, Medicare disability, and other programs funded under the Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

It took Congress six months into FY 2022 to debate, amend and approve the budget after managing to accomplish only a series of emergency spending authorizations to keep the federal government operating in the interim. One of the key sticking points – especially in the U.S. Senate – was the issue of taxpayer funding of abortion. The administration’s FY 2022 proposal eliminated the Hyde Amendment, and a majority of senators – including pro-life Democrats such as Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., fought for its inclusion.

Hyde eventually won out and was added to the FY 2022 budget. So why isn’t its inclusion an automatic starting point for the FY 2023 budget? By leaving it out, aren’t we going to repeat the same political battles in Congress and the months lost over the next year that could have been easily avoided by including it? What’s the point?

And the FY 2023 budget’s exclusion of Hyde is only one of many gifts to the abortion industry. According to an email from Andrew Guernsey, Executive Director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, the proposed budget also:

• Eliminates the Dornan Amendment which would allow the District of Columbia to fund abortions through its Medicaid program.
• Increases Title X funding by 40%. This program typically puts $60 million per year in the hands of Planned Parenthood alone under the guise of “family planning” services.
• Increases funding for teen pregnancy prevention from $101 million to $111 million. These funds help subsidize Planned Parenthood, one of its recipients.
• Increases funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from $32.5 million to $56 million. The UNFPA promotes abortions around the world.
• Adds authority to “promote gender equality” overseas, including “protecting the rights of women and girls worldwide.” This would bypass a couple of pro-life provisions applicable to foreign policy and allow taxpayer funding for abortion or abortion lobbying overseas.

And the list of abortion-promoting budget items goes on. One group that is ecstatic over the FY 2023 budget proposal is, of course, Planned Parenthood. In a press release, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president and CEO Alexis McGill said,

The president’s budget is an essential opportunity to underscore the administration’s values, and we are pleased that the budget demonstrates a commitment to expanding reproductive freedom. Now it’s Congress’s job to build on that commitment. We need the health care leaders in Congress to support domestic and global sexual and reproductive health and rights priorities with robust investments and necessary policy change. The need is dire.

Even when Hyde is included in the federal budget, Planned Parenthood still receives over $600 million in taxpayer funds for its Medicaid and Title X “services.” Without Hyde in place, one can only speculate what expansions of U.S. taxpayer money the abortion giant will add to its coffers.

The majority of Americans do not support taxpayer funds going to pay for abortions. In a recent Marist poll of 1004 adults, 54% of those polled either oppose or strongly oppose the use of their taxes for abortions. And when asked the same question about tax dollars being used to fund overseas abortion services, the opposition grows to 73%.

Abortion takes a human life. Forcing taxpayers to pay for that is immoral and reprehensible.

Related Articles:

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Sen. Manchin Says $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill is ‘Dead on Arrival’ Without Hyde Amendment

House Passes ‘Build Back Better Act’ to Force American Taxpayers to Fund Abortions

BREAKING – House Passes Bill Without Hyde Amendment, Forcing Americans to Pay for Abortions

New Government Budget Will Eliminate Hyde Amendment, Forcing Americans to Pay for Abortions

Over 100 Conservative Leaders Ask Congressional Republicans to Defend Hyde Amendment

Eighty-Six Representatives Led by Doug Lamborn Call for Protection of Hyde Amendment

What the Pro-Life Fight Looks Like in 2021—Democrats Promise to Remove Hyde Amendment

New Legislation Introduced to Challenge Hyde Amendment

48 Senators Tell Schumer ‘We Will Vote Against Any Measure that Weakens Current Pro-Life Laws’

‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’ Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives

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