Trump tells Republicans to be 'flexible' on abortion restrictions to get
a health care deal
[January 07, 2026]
By BILL BARROW
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants Republicans to reach a deal
on health care insurance assistance by being willing to bend on a
50-year-old budget policy that bars federal money from being spent on
abortion services.
“You have to be a little flexible" on the Hyde Amendment, Trump told
House Republicans as they gathered in Washington for a caucus retreat to
open the midterm election year. “You gotta be a little flexible. You
gotta work something. You gotta use ingenuity.”
With his suggestion, Trump, who supported abortion rights before he
entered politics in 2015, is asking conservatives to abandon or at least
ease up on decades of Republican orthodoxy on abortion and spending
policy — something lawmakers and conservatives pushed back on
immediately.
At the same time, he is demonstrating his long-standing malleability on
abortion and acknowledging that Democrats have the political upper hand
on health care after Republicans, who control the White House, the
Senate and the House, allowed the expiration of premium subsidies for
people buying Affordable Care Act insurance policies. As negotiations on
Capitol Hill continue on the matter, some Democrats are pushing to end
the Hyde restrictions as part of any new agreements on health care
subsidies.
Trump's road map on the Hyde Amendment came more than an hour into a
stem-winding speech intended as a part strategy session and part pep
rally as Republicans attempt to maintain their threadbare House majority
in the November midterms.
The president touted the GOP proposal to replace ACA subsidies — which
taxpayers typically steer directly to insurance companies after
selecting their policies — with direct payments that taxpayers could use
for a range of health care expenses, including insurance. The expanded
ACA subsidies expired on Dec. 31, 2025, hitting millions of policy
holders with steep premium increases.
“Let the money go directly to the people,” Trump said, before casually
slipping in a reference to the Hyde Amendment.
“We're all big fans of everything,” he said. “But you have to have
flexibility.”
Turning directly to GOP leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump
added, “If you can do that, you're going to have — this is going to be
your issue.”
House Republicans did not visibly react to Trump's argument. But Senate
Republicans appeared unlikely to back off their demands that any new
health care legislation maintain existing restrictions on government
funding for abortion services.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune reiterated his stance Tuesday
afternoon that any legislation must ensure “that those dollars aren’t
being used to go against the practice that has been in place for the
last 50 years.”
Beyond Capitol Hill, Trump drew swift condemnation from parts of the GOP
coalition that want absolute opposition to any policy that might ease
abortion restrictions.
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President Donald Trump walks off stage after speaking to House
Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday,
Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
 Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said it would sour core
conservative voters and make Republicans “sure to lose this
November.”
“To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of
this decades-long commitment,” she said in a statement. “The voters
sent a GOP trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like
one. Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to
fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a
massive betrayal.”
Even before Trump's speech, activists were ramping up pressure on
Republicans in their talks with Democrats.
At Americans United for Life, a leading advocacy group that opposes
abortion rights, Gavin Oxley penned an op-ed this week for “The
Hill” titled, “Republicans must hold the line: No Hyde Amendment, no
deal on health care.”
“If they play their cards right,” Oxley wrote, “Republicans just
might earn back enough of their base’s trust to sustain them through
the 2026 midterms.”
The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde, originally
applied to Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurance program for
poor and disabled Americans, and barred it from paying for abortions
unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result
of rape or incest. Hyde first introduced it in 1976, shortly after
the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized
abortion nationwide.
Over the years, Congress reauthorized Hyde policy as part of
spending bills that fund the government. Democrats who support
abortion access often joined Republicans who opposed abortion rights
as a bipartisan compromise to pass larger spending deals. But as the
two parties hardened their respective positions on abortion,
Democrats became more uniform opponents of the ban, most famously
when presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed his long-standing
support for Hyde on his way to winning the 2020 Democratic
nomination and general election.
Republicans have maintained their near-absolute support for the
amendment.
The anti-abortion movement was initially skeptical of Trump as a
presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016. But he has mostly aligned
with the key faction of the Republican coalition, especially on
Supreme Court appointments that led to the 2022 decision overturning
Roe.
—
Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press
reporter Stephen Groves contributed from Washington.
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