Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned Thursday of the “nightmare” that President Joe Biden and Democrat leaders are trying to push on the American people.
That “nightmare” is forcing hardworking taxpayers to pay to kill unborn babies in elective, unnecessary abortions – some by being torn limb from limb while their hearts are still beating in brutal dismemberment abortions, others by basically being starved to death in their mothers’ wombs.
Speaking on the U.S. Senate floor, McConnell slammed Democrats for advancing their radical plan against Americans’ will.
“This week, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee are doing something so radical that it hasn’t been done for decades: They are advancing an annual funding bill that leaves out the Hyde Amendment, the commonsense prohibition on forcing taxpayers to fund abortion,” the Kentucky Republican leader said.
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The Hyde Amendment prohibits taxpayer funding for most abortions in Medicaid and other federal programs. It is credited with saving about 2.4 million babies’ lives, and polls consistently show strong public support for it.
For decades, most Republican and Democrat lawmakers supported the amendment as a regular part of the federal budget. However, Democrat leaders recently abandoned the public on the issue and sided with the billion-dollar abortion industry.
On Thursday, House Democrats blocked a Republican effort to restore the Hyde Amendment to federal spending bills.
For decades, “a broad, bipartisan coalition agreed the American taxpayer should not be forced to underwrite this nightmare. And by the way, a strong majority of Americans still agree!” McConnell said.
That majority used to include Biden. McConnell said Biden supported the Hyde Amendment for decades and even defended it in a letter to a constituent.
“’Those of us who are opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them,’” he quoted Biden.
On the presidential campaign trail, however, Biden abandoned his position while courting the support of the billion-dollar abortion lobby. Then, in May, he released his first budget proposal, a plan that would force taxpayers to pay for abortions.
“He let the demands of the increasingly radical left overcome a principle he’d held for decades,” McConnell said. “In today’s Democratic party, there is no room to dissent from the far left’s culture war — even in the most modest, most longstanding, and most widely popular ways.”
He promised that Republican leaders will stand for Americans and fight for life.
“Senate Republicans are going to continue standing up for life, standing up for taxpayers, and standing up for the conscience rights of millions of Americans who don’t want the government laundering their hard-earned money to abortion providers,” McConnell concluded.
Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has saved an estimated 2.4 million babies’ lives, including about 60,000 each year, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Polls consistently show that most Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortions. A recent Marist poll found that 77 percent of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to promote abortion overseas, and 58 percent oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortions in the United States.
A 2016 Harvard/Politico poll found strong support for the Hyde Amendment as well. It 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).
