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The
budget, released Friday, makes no mention of the "Hyde
Amendment," first passed in 1976, which has been included in
federal spending bills since.
The amendment, which restricts abortion coverage for recipients
of Medicare, Medicaid, federal employees, servicewomen and
Washington, D.C., residents, could still be added to any final
2022 spending bill as it moves through Congress.
Women's and civil rights groups, who say the amendment
disproportionately impacts low-income women, hailed its omission
in Biden's proposal Friday nonetheless.
"Exciting to see the admin's historic step! For too long, the
Hyde amendment has put the gov't in control of personal health
care decisions for people with low incomes," women's health
provider Planned Parenthood said on Twitter.
Biden, a life-long Catholic, supported the Hyde Amendment for
most of his political career, but changed his position in 2019
while campaigning for president, saying the right to abortion
was under assault in many states and increasingly inaccessible
to poorer women.
Republican lawmakers criticized the omission on Friday.
"It breaks with decades of settled precedent by calling for
direct taxpayer-funded abortion," said Republican House minority
leader Kevin McCarthy.
Though abortion is legal in the United States, regulations can
vary dramatically from one state to the next. California, New
York and several other states use public money to cover
abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, while many
others states prohibit that practice.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could gut
Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion
nationwide.
(Reporting by Heather Timmons; Editing by Andy Sullivan and
Daniel Wallis)
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