WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The federal Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2 1/2-million lives since its adoption in 1976, according to the latest data reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
For decades, the Hyde Amendment has traditionally been included every year in federal budgets with little objection. It forbids most taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortions except for cases of rape, incest, or threat to a mother’s life. Despite its largely bipartisan acceptance, former President Joe Biden proposed removing it in the budgets he submitted to Congress and worked throughout his presidency to distribute funds to entities involved in abortion.
On September 30, Lozier published a report arguing that 2,646,474 babies have survived to birth thanks to the Hyde Amendment, based on a calculation of the law’s impact on programs that would otherwise have funded elective abortions as well as Hyde’s interaction with other pro-life policies a state has in effect.
“Since it was first passed in 1976, the Hyde Amendment has had a great track record of protecting the conscience rights of taxpayers and protecting unborn babies,” said Lozier senior associate scholar Michael New, who authored the report. “Forty-nine years later, we are still seeing the fruits of the Hyde Amendment as tens of thousands of unborn lives are saved. As we work to end the scourge of abortion, the Hyde Amendment has remained an important safeguard protecting the dignity of unborn babies and the conscience rights of Americans who don’t want their tax dollars funding abortion.”
Especially without Roe v. Wade to ensure abortion’s legality, the industry relies heavily on taxpayer funding to stay in operation. Last year, Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report revealed that its affiliates across the nation took in $699.3 million in government “health services” reimbursements and grants, accounting for 39% of its total revenue during that period. At the same time, the abortion chain committed 392,715 abortions – yet its legitimate health services, such as pap tests and cancer screenings, continued to decline as percentages of its overall business.
Within weeks of returning to office, President Donald Trump began enforcing Hyde, reinstated the Mexico City Policy (which forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for elective abortions abroad), and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.
In March, the administration froze Title X “family planning” grants to nonprofits it said violated its executive orders on immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including Planned Parenthood affiliates in nine states.
This summer, Trump signed his so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB) that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to any entity that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life. Roughly 60% of PPWI’s patients are covered by Medicaid.
Other Republicans have proposed stand-alone measures to fully cut off Planned Parenthood’s government funding: the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which permanently bans federal funds from being used for abortion; and the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which disqualifies Planned Parenthood and its affiliates specifically. But they would require 60 votes to make it through the Senate.
