Republican legislators who hold a majority of seats in the House of Representatives since the November 2020 elections are led by Indiana Representative Jim Banks in taking a strong stand against Democrats’ bills forcing Americans to fund abortions.
“Conservative Republicans are sending a strong statement to congressional leaders: We will not stand idle as radical Democrats work to end the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion. I pray this show of solidarity will save the Hyde Amendment and save thousands of innocent lives,” Banks said in an interview with Daily Caller News Foundation.
Banks, who Chairs the Republican Study Committee, is joined by 200 co-Republicans in a letter addressed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House of Representatives Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy as per a Life News report.
“We write to express our unified opposition to Congressional Democrats’ efforts to repeal the Hyde Amendment and other current-law, pro-life appropriations provisions. As part of their pro-abortion crusade, Democrats have taken direct aim at these long-standing, bipartisan protections that generally prevent the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to support abortion procedures,” the Republicans said in the letter.
“Repealing these pro-life provisions would destroy nearly half a century of bipartisan consensus. Each year since 1976, Congress has included Hyde protections in annually enacted appropriations,” they added. “No president in American history has ever vetoed an appropriations bill due to its inclusion of the Hyde Amendment.”
The Republicans cited former President Barack Obama who “maintained the Hyde Amendment in each of his budget proposals” and former Vice President Joe Biden who “supported the Hyde Amendment and acknowledged that it works harmoniously with federal funding for women’s healthcare” back in June 2019.
In addition, they cited annual surveys on public opinion indicating that “repealing the Hyde Amendment is opposed by most of the American public.”
“Congressional Democrats now seek to further erode public trust in government by ignoring mainstream public opinion in favor of placating the radical Left,” the Republicans raised. Life News said that Democrats, spearheaded by Biden, have expressed plans to get rid of the Hyde Amendment.
“Forcing taxpayers to fund abortions is anti-life & anti-choice,” Banks posted in his Twitter account Tuesday.
The Republicans highlighted, “The Hyde Amendment alone has saved the lives of over 2 million innocent babies and continues to protect the conscience rights of a vast majority of Americans opposed to publicly funded abortions.”
“We cannot allow the Hyde Amendment and other important pro-life safeguards to be decimated by Congressional Democrats. Accordingly, we pledge to vote against any government funding bill that eliminates or weakens the Hyde Amendment or other current-law, pro-life appropriations provisions,” they ended.
Life News raised that polls conducted by the Knights of Columbus called the MARIST Poll and by the Harvard University / Politico show “strong opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions” at at 60% and 58%, respectively, or six in every 10 Americans do not want their tax money used for the “killing of unborn babies in abortions.” While people who mostly qualify for Medicaid coverage oppose it most.
The Hyde Amendment presently “prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or risks to the mother’s life” and prevents Americans to “pay for thousands of elective abortions annually through Medicaid as well as through insurance to Peace Corps volunteers, federal workers and military members,” Life News explained.
