Taxpayer funding for abortions always has been hugely unpopular with Americans. But pro-abortion groups see an opportunity to push their radical agenda on the American people in Joe Biden.
On Monday, The Hill ran a piece highlighting pro-abortion groups’ hopes that Biden will work to end the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to fund elective abortions if he wins the White House.
“There’s lots of evidence that the current is moving in our direction,” Ronald Newman, national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Hill.
Though polls consistently show strong opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions, a growing number of Democrat leaders are embracing the position, Biden among them. Last year, he abandoned his long-standing support of the Hyde Amendment and promised to force taxpayers to fund abortions if elected.
The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal taxpayer funding for abortions in Medicaid and other programs. It has saved more than 2.4 million unborn babies from abortions, or about 60,000 per year, according to research by Charlotte Lozier Institute.
For more than four decades, the amendment received bi-partisan support in Congress, but Democrats have been shifting further left on the issue. To be assured of Biden’s commitment to the matter, the ACLU and pro-abortion group All* Above All want him to develop a plan for ending the Hyde Amendment, according to the report.
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“A commitment is a good first step, but we need a concrete plan,” said Morgan Hopkins, senior national campaigns manager of All* Above All.
The president alone cannot force taxpayers to pay for abortions; the U.S. House and Senate also must vote to end the Hyde Amendment. Abortion activists admitted that they are not sure how likely it is that it will happen – a strong indication of its unpopularity among voters.
Here’s more from the report:
If Democrats do win the White House and Congress, the effort to end Hyde could also face roadblocks from moderate lawmakers in swing districts.
“There are still folks in districts who may feel concerned — our frontliners — who may feel as they have a harder time taking votes on repealing Hyde,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood.
“Yet, they stand very clearly with the issue and making sure our work is to support them and make sure they understand that we will fight incredibly hard for our champions.”
NARAL president Ilyse Hogue also admitted that they do not have everyone on board, but she promised to keep pushing until they do.
“This is something we’re committed to getting done in the next Congress,” she told The Hill.
Polls consistently show that Americans do not want taxpayer-funded abortions, and a 2019 Morning Consult poll found that they would be less likely to support Biden because he does.
A 2019 poll conducted by Marist University found that three-quarters (75 percent) of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion abroad, while fewer than two in 10 (19 percent) support such funding. Opposition to this funding includes most Republicans (94 percent) and independents (80 percent) and a majority of Democrats (56 percent).
By a double-digit margin, a majority of all Americans oppose any taxpayer funding of abortion (54 percent to 39 percent).
In 2016, when Hillary Clinton campaigned on the same issue, a Harvard/Politico poll found that only 36 percent of likely voters support overturning the Hyde Amendment.
Interestingly, the poll also found that voters who make more than $75,000 were more supportive of forcing taxpayers to fund abortions (45 percent in favor), while those who make $25,000 or less were strongly against it (24 percent in favor). In other words, the people most likely to qualify for a Medicaid-covered, taxpayer-funded abortion are the ones who oppose it the most.
Biden would expand taxpayer funding for the abortion industry in more ways that one. Along with working to end the Hyde Amendment, he also promised that one of his first acts as president would be to restore funding to Planned Parenthood, the billion-dollar abortion chain. He also said he would end the Mexico City policy, which prohibits international funding to groups that promote and/or provide abortions.
