WASHINGTON (LifeSiteNews) – More than 180 U.S. congressional lawmakers sent a letter to Republican congressional leadership to support their commitment to maintain the Hyde Amendment and other protections for the preborn in government spending legislation.
“Thank you for the consistent pro-life leadership you have shown even as House and Senate Democrats have demonstrated their plan to use Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Appropriations legislation to strip out longstanding pro-life protections that have been in place for decades,” wrote the congressmen to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. “We appreciate your unwavering commitment to ensuring that these pro-life protections are retained in any FY2022 final appropriations bill. We will vote against any federal funding bill that weakens or eliminates them.”
In initial spending legislation for 2022, Democrats intentionally removed long-standing protections for the preborn in their bid to fund the government. The Hyde Amendment, the most well-known of these safeguards, which prohibits direct taxpayer funding for most abortions, was replaced with pro-abortion provisions to advance the practice. The congressmen highlight the Hyde Amendment’s critical impact, citing a study that estimates that this Amendment alone is responsible for having saved at least 2.4 million lives.
Additionally, the congressmen write how Joe Biden as a U.S. Senator once told a constituent that “those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.”
In early December, both the U.S. House and the Senate passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through February 18, 2022. The 181 congressmen insist that in order for any appropriations legislation to pass, all traditional and long-standing protections for preborn life must be retained.
“The removal of these longstanding policies represents an extreme pro-abortion stance that needs to be immediately addressed,” said the congressmen. “Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for abortion domestically or internationally. The consciences of health care providers who do not want to participate in abortion should be respected. Funding should not go to international organizations that are complicit in forced abortion and involuntary sterilization.”
“Removing the Hyde Amendment, the amendment that protects taxpayers from paying for abortions, is both wrong and unpopular,”said Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks in a press release about the letter. “But today’s Democrat party only caters to their far-left base who demand the government provide taxpayer-funded abortions up until the point of birth. Pro-life conservatives stand united against their radical agenda.”
“Abortion is not health care unless one construes the precious life of an unborn child to be analogous to a tumor to be excised or a disease to be vanquished—pregnancy is not a disease,” added New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith. “Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion nor should anyone or any entity be coerced against their conscience to perform or facilitate the killing of an unborn child.”