With Nancy Pelosi re-elected as Speaker of the House, Democrats in Congress are preparing to push legislation that would force taxpayers to fund abortions.
Pelosi, a pro-abortion Democrat from California, narrowly secured her spot as U.S. House leader on Sunday, defeating Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy. Republicans, including a record number of pro-life women, gained seats in the House in November, narrowing Democrats’ majority.
Despite their losses, Democrat leaders still are pushing forward with their radical pro-abortion agenda, including ending the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for elective abortions in Medicaid.
Pelosi recently said getting rid of the amendment is “long overdue,” according to Breitbart.
“We must pursue justice, economic justice, justice in health, racial justice, environmental and climate justice; the list goes on,” Pelosi said in her victory speech Sunday.
Democrat leaders are framing the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions as a matter of racial and economic justice. Their argument is based on the idea that women need to be able to abort their unborn babies to succeed, and poor women, including black and Latino women, may not be able to afford abortions on their own.
The Hyde Amendment is a decades-old measure that prohibits taxpayer funding for elective abortions in Medicaid. Pro-life researchers estimate it has saved at least 2.4 million babies from abortion, and polls consistently show that Americans support it.
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Democrat leaders already are seeing resistance from some of their own party members on the issue.
Townhall reports U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a pro-life Democrat from West Virginia, said Wednesday that he will continue to support the Hyde Amendment.
“Repealing the Hyde Amendment would be foolish and I’m strongly opposed to this push from some Members of Congress,” Manchin told National Review. “If this legislation is brought before the Senate I will vote against repealing the Hyde Amendment.”
Democrats for Life of South Carolina praised Manchin for taking a stand for life and the American people. On Twitter, the pro-life group predicted that Democrats who continue to push for taxpayer-funded abortions will get “crushed in the 2022 midterms.”
Most Americans do not want their tax dollars to pay for the killing of unborn babies in abortions, including many Democrat voters. Recent polls from Marist and Harvard University/Politico show strong opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions. According to Marist, six in 10 Americans (60 percent) oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, while the Harvard poll found that 58 percent oppose it.
What’s more, research suggests low-income women do not want taxpayer-funded abortions. According to the Harvard/Politico poll, voters who make more than $75,000 were more supportive of ending the Hyde Amendment (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.
Whether Democrat leaders will succeed in Congress remains uncertain. Republicans still hold a narrow majority in the U.S. Senate; however, the power of the legislative body ultimately will be determined by the outcome of the Georgia runoff elections this week.
If Democrats end the Hyde Amendment, Americans could be forced to pay for 60,000 elective abortions annually through Medicaid as well as through insurance to Peace Corps volunteers, federal workers and military members. Currently, the amendment prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or risks to the mother’s life.
