House Democrats introduce bill targeting ban on federal funding for most abortions

House Democrats reintroduced a bill Thursday that would reverse the Hyde Amendment, a provision that bans federal funding for most abortions.

The Hyde Amendment also restricts the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion care. Once seen as untouchable, the provision has increasingly become a target for reproductive rights advocates who hope to expand abortion access after last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The bill is called the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act.

“The Hyde Amendment disproportionately impacts and restricts low-income people, primarily Black and brown communities, from accessing the full range of reproductive health services that they should be afforded. So it’s discriminatory and racist,” Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California who was among the representatives who introduced the bill, told USA TODAY.

The bill faces an uphill climb in the Republican-controlled House.

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What is the Hyde Amendment

Since it was passed in 1976, the Hyde Amendment has affected abortion access for people under Medicaid and Medicare programs, federal employees and their dependents, Native American and Indigenous people who use Indian Health Services, military members, and people in federal prisons and detention centers, according to All Above All, a national abortion rights organization.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia do not cover abortion within their state Medicaid programs, except for limited exceptions, according to the group.

The bill, introduced by Lee and reps Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; Diana DeGette, D-Colo.; and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., would ensure that anyone who receives health care or insurance through the federal government is able to also have coverage for abortion services.