WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The White House reiterated on Wednesday President Donald Trump’s record of support for the Hyde Amendment and work to keep tax dollars away from abortion without ruling out a compromise on the provision, following his recent comments urging “flexibility” from Republicans in healthcare negotiations.
As previously covered by LifeSiteNews, Trump told a Tuesday gathering of House Republicans “you’ve got to be a little flexible on Hyde” for the sake of reaching a deal in the narrowly-divided Congress on health care reform, an issue which has picked up steam in recent weeks due to the recent expiration of subsidies under the so-called Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare). The declaration sparked alarm and protest from pro-life leaders and activists, many of whom framed Hyde as one of the federal government’s most basic and non-negotiable pro-life obligations.
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 supposed threat to a mother’s life. Hyde is estimated to have saved more than 2.5 million lives since its adoption in 1976, according to data reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute in September 2025.
When asked about the comment the next day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied any change in position.
“The president did not change the administration’s policy,” she said. “It was President Trump who signed an executive order protecting the Hyde Amendment. It’s the Trump administration that has taken multiple actions on various fronts to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding the practice of abortion. What the president was saying yesterday was Republicans, and frankly Democrats, too, need to show a little bit more flexibility so we can actually get something done with respect to the issue of healthcare.
“Republicans have amazing ideas,” Leavitt continued. “The president himself, as we spoke about earlier, has launched his most-favored-nation drug pricing initiative, has cut good deals with Big Pharma. He wants to see Republicans, and Democrats too if they’re willing, codify those executive orders into law, so these good deals can remain and these prices can continue to be lowered long after this president and this dealmaker-in-chief is gone. President’s talked a lot about health savings accounts and giving more money back to the healthcare consumer, rather than to these giant insurance companies, and he’s been very outspoken and tough on them too, and I think you’ll see more and hear more from him directly on that issue. So he wants to see Congress get something done with respect to healthcare, and that was the point that he was driving home yesterday.”
.@PressSec: “It was @POTUS who signed an executive order protecting the Hyde Amendment. It’s the Trump Administration that has taken multiple actions, on various fronts, to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding the practice of abortion. What @POTUS was saying yesterday was… pic.twitter.com/7MFcN7zHbY
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 7, 2026
The statement touts the second Trump administration’s record so far of opposing taxpayer funding of abortion, but does not specifically rule out some sort of compromise on Hyde in healthcare negotiations, leaving the controversy unresolved. Hyde is expected to be a sticking point between Republicans and Democrats, but it remains to be seen how exactly the White House will weigh in on it until a specific proposal is in consideration.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a firm Trump ally, stated simply in response to questions, “we are not going to change the standard that we’re not going to use taxpayer funding for abortion. I’m just not going to allow that to happen.”
Trump established a consistently pro-life record in his first term, but began to turn after the 2022 midterm elections, in which he attempted to blame the abortion issue for GOP underperformance. During his 2024 run, he changed further still, ruling out a federal abortion ban in favor of leaving the issue to the states, and changing the Republican Party platform’s longstanding pro-life language to reflect that preference.
He also declared he would not reverse former President Joe Biden’s decision not to enforce federal law against mailing abortion pills across state lines, despite the tactic undermining state pro-life laws. Pro-lifers have hoped that stance might change with the administration’s pledge to review the safety data of abortion pills but have been frustrated by the lack of updates amid allegations (which the administration denies) that the review is being slow-walked until after the 2026 midterms.
Taxpayer funding of abortion has been the issue on which Trump has most strongly continued the pro-life record of his first term. Within weeks of returning to office, he began enforcing the Hyde Amendment, reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for most abortions abroad, and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.
In March, the Trump 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.
In July, Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to entities that commit abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or purported threats to the mother’s life.
These cuts have significantly impacted the bottom line of Planned Parenthood, which is currently in court to try to stop the federal government from cutting it off. According to Operation Rescue, 54 abortion facilities shut their doors in 2024, 36 of which were Planned Parenthood locations.
