In a pleasant surprise the U.S. Senate upholds the Hyde Amendment

 

Church leaders work to protect pro-life Hyde amendment

• John Lavenburg
  Aug 12, 2021
  NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW YORK ­– Members of the U.S. bishops’ conference pro-life arm say they view the Aug. 10 vote by the U.S. Senate to preserve the Hyde Amendment as an important sign that the provision still has bipartisan support.

In a near partisan 50-49 vote, Democrat Joe Manchin, a Catholic, joined all of the Republicans in voting yes to a budget resolution amendment late Tuesday night to preserve Hyde – a longstanding provision that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion.

“I’m hopeful and praying hard for this and I’m very grateful that the Senate did the right thing,” Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore told Crux. “[The vote] is very important because it means this has to be considered and has to be dealt with in a very serious way and that gives me hope.”

The Senate ultimately voted to approve the $3.5 trillion budget resolution in the early hours of Wednesday, Aug. 11, after a marathon of amendment votes in what’s known as a “vote-a-rama.” The budget resolution now goes onto the House of Representatives for a vote.

The amendment to preserve Hyde – called the Lankford Amendment after Republican Senator James Lankford who introduced it – however, was non-binding and therefore won’t necessarily be included in the House of Representatives version, or any subsequent budget legislation.

Key points of the budget resolution, published by Senate Democrats on Monday, Aug. 9, include investments for families, including universal preschool and free community college.

If the budget resolution is passed by both chambers, it unlocks the ability for Democrats to pass comprehensive legislation addressing the issues above through reconciliation, which allows legislation related to spending, revenues and the federal debt limit by a simple majority.

Democrats have a 220-212 edge in the House. The Senate is split 50-50, however, Vice President Kamala Harris would act as the tie breaking vote. Therefore, even though the Lankford Amendment is non-binding, it’s viewed as a message from Joe Manchin to his constituents that the Hyde Amendment needs to be included if they want his vote.

“We just see this as a really important signal for the future,” Katherine Talalas, the USCCB assistant director of pro-life communications told Crux. “This is a sign that there is support [for Hyde], that it will be protected.”

In the event legislation makes it to the desk of President Joe Biden, the nation’s second Catholic commander in chief, without the Hyde Amendment, he has already stated his support for dropping the provision.

For months now the USCCB has been outspoken in its support for Hyde. Specifically, Talalas said, they’re focused on a proposed Medicaid expansion provision in the budget package that does not include the amendment.

In a statement, Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph told Crux that the Lankford Amendment vote was a “victory, but we must continue to be vigilant and work for the ongoing effort to protect countless innocent lives.”

“I will continue as a member of the U.S. Bishop’s Pro-Life Activities Committee to join clergy and laypeople from across the country in sending a strong message that billions of taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay for abortion,” Johnston said.

Brian Browne, a political science professor at St. John’s University, told Crux with Manchin sending a “strong signal” by demonstrating his support for Hyde, it puts the pressure on Democrats to “pick their battles.”

“There’s a lot of good things in the bill and I think Democrats really have to decide, do they plant their flag in the ground behind [Hyde] when democratic members of the Senate are in favor, when poll after poll says Americans support it, and it’s been a bipartisan thing for 40-plus years?” Browne said.

Browne also noted that federal budget deadlines loom, and questions whether or not Democrats would risk a government shutdown over the Hyde Amendment with midterm elections in 2022.

A key vehicle in the USCCB’s advocacy for Hyde has been an online petition they put together to save. The petition, available through notaxpayerabortion.com has gathered over 145,000 signatures to date.

Lori encourages Catholics to continue using their voice in support of Hyde.

“I’m very grateful to the Catholics across the United States who have supported this,” said Lori, a member of the U.S. Bishops Pro-Life Activities Committee. “It is very important for us, as Catholics, as citizens, to voice our views to our elected representatives and to expect them to take our views seriously.”

USCCB reacts to the Democratic House killing the Hyde Amendment

 

U.S. Bishops’ Chairmen Respond to House Vote to Force Taxpayers to Fund Elective Abortions

JULY 29, 2021 BY PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

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WASHINGTON - Today, the House voted 219 to 208 in favor of H.R. 4502, a package of appropriations bills that currently excludes the 46-year-old Hyde Amendment and other longstanding, bipartisan provisions like the Weldon Amendment. Eliminating these provisions would force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions and would have the effect of forcing health care providers and professionals to perform and refer for abortion against their deeply-held beliefs, as well as forcing employers and insurers to cover and pay for abortion. 

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued the following statement:  

“The House has voted in a way that is completely out of step with the will of the American people who overwhelmingly oppose taxpayer-funded abortion. The Hyde Amendment has saved at least 2.4 million lives since its enactment. Without it, millions of poor women in desperate circumstances will make the irrevocable decision to take the government up on its offer to end the life of their child. 

“To be certain, this bill includes provisions that help vulnerable people, including pregnant moms. As we have said before, ‘being “right” in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.’ In truth, ‘the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the “rightness” of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community.’[i]

“The injustice in HR 4502 extends to removing conscience protections and exemptions for healthcare providers who believe abortion is wrong, or whose faith drives them to serve and heal lives, instead of taking them.  

“Funding the destruction of innocent unborn human lives, and forcing people to kill in violation of their consciences, are grave abuses of human rights. We call on the Senate to redress this evil in H.R. 4502, and for Congress to ultimately pass appropriations bills that fully support and protect human dignity, and the most vulnerable among us.”

Archbishop Cordileone continues to correct disobedient, wrong-headed Nancy Pelosi

 

Archbishop Cordileone Responds to Pelosi: No Devout Catholic Can Condone Abortion, ‘Let Alone Have the Government Pay for It’

In response, the Archbishop of San Francisco said: “To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: what about the health of the baby being killed? What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life?”

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (photo: Dennis Callahan, Archdiocese of San Francisco/Public domain. / Dennis Callahan, Archdiocese of San Francisco/Public domain.)

CNA StaffNationJuly 23, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO — The Archbishop of San Francisco on Thursday responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after she cited her Catholic faith while defending efforts to permit federal funding of elective abortions.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Pelosi’s home diocese, criticized her stance on the Hyde Amendment.

“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” he told CNA.  

“The right to life is a fundamental — the most fundamental — human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”

Speaking at her weekly press conference in the U.S. Capitol on July 22, Speaker Pelosi said that she supported a repeal of the Hyde Amendment because it is “an issue of health, of many women in America, especially those in lower-income situations and in different states.” 

“And it is something that has been a priority for many of us for a long time,” Pelosi said.

A draft spending bill recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee would allow for federal funding of elective abortions in Medicaid. It excludes the Hyde Amendment, a federal policy since 1976 which prohibits funding of most abortions in Medicaid.

At the press conference, Pelosi cited her faith, saying that as “a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family, five children in six years almost to the day.” 

She added that she would not presume to make decisions for other women, regarding their families and abortion.

Pelosi said that “it’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should do, and it [funding of abortion in Medicaid] is an issue of fairness and justice for poorer women in our country.”

In response, Archbishop Cordileone said: “To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: what about the health of the baby being killed? What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life?”

“This would give them fairness and equality to women of means, who can afford to bring a child into the world. It is people of faith who run pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics; they are the only ones who provide poor women life-giving alternatives to having their babies killed in their wombs.”  

He added: “I cannot be prouder of my fellow Catholics who are so prominent in providing this vital service. To them, I say: you are the ones worthy to call yourselves ‘devout Catholics’!”

President Joe Biden did not include the Hyde Amendment in his budget request to Congress for the 2022 fiscal year. Leading Democrats have pushed for an end to the policy in recent years. The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill recently advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee without the amendment language.

The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, was first enacted in 1976, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Exceptions were later added to the policy for cases involving rape, incest, or maternal mortality risk. 

Since the amendment is not permanent law, it must be attached to individual appropriations bills or it will not take effect.

The U.S. bishops’ conference has called on lawmakers to preserve the Hyde Amendment, and is circulating a petition in support of the pro-life policy which currently has more than 130,000 signatures. 

In January, Pelosi said that pro-lifers who voted for former President Donald Trump because of the abortion issue gave her “great grief as a Catholic,” and also defended the use of contraception. 

During a podcast with former senator and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Pelosi said that pro-lifers who chose to vote for Trump “were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”

In a subsequent statement, the archbishop of San Francisco said that “No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion.” 

“Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop,” Archbishop Cordileone said. 

Pelosi has long supported legal abortion. In June, she told a reporter that “I am a big supporter of Roe v. Wade. I am a mother of five children in six years. I think I have some standing on this issue, as to respecting a woman’s right to choose.”

In May, Pelosi said she was “pleased” with a Vatican letter to the U.S. bishops which addressed Communion for pro-abortion politicians. She claimed the Vatican instructed the bishops not to be “divisive” on the issue.

In response, Archbishop Cordileone said that the Vatican actually promoted “dialogue” between bishops and pro-abortion politicians, “to help them understand the grave evil they are helping to perpetrate and accompany them to a change of heart.”

“I’m happy to know that Speaker Pelosi said she is pleased with the letter,” the archbishop said. “Speaker Pelosi’s positive reaction” to the letter, he noted, “raises hope that progress can be made in this most serious matter.”