The Hyde amendment was passed on September 30th, 1976. The amendment bars certain federal funds, primarily Medicaid, from being used to pay for abortions. It is a mean, vile, arguably unconstitutional provision that disproportionately affects low-income women and families. Every year it’s tacked on to an appropriations bill, and so 36 years after Hyde’s initial passage we’re still telling one portion of the population that they don’t get to have affordable access to abortion, that we don’t think they’re capable of making their own health care and family planning decisions, that we know what’s right for them, that if they were so stupid as to go get knocked up when they knew they didn’t want a baby then they shouldn’t expect us to help them out after the fact.
The National Network of Abortion Funds has a petition that you can sign to show your support of all women’s right to safe, affordable abortion: