Landmark policy, developed with the leadership of Congressman Henry Hyde and National Right to Life, has saved more than 2.6 million lives

WASHINGTON — Fifty years ago today, Congress enacted the Hyde Amendment, establishing a policy that would become one of the most consequential protections for unborn children in American history.

On September 30, 1976, an amendment offered by freshman Congressman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) was enacted to prevent federal Medicaid funds from paying for elective abortions. National Right to Life worked closely with Congressman Hyde in the effort to enact the amendment, providing strategic and grassroots support for what became one of the pro-life movement’s earliest and most enduring legislative achievements.

“For fifty years, the Hyde Amendment has demonstrated a simple but extraordinarily important truth: when the law protects unborn children, lives are saved,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “More than 2.6 million Americans are alive today because Henry Hyde had the courage to act and because pro-life Americans worked to make those protections a reality.”

In the years immediately following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the federal Medicaid program began paying for elective abortions. By 1976, Medicaid was paying for approximately 300,000 abortions annually.

Working with National Right to Life and other pro-life allies, Congressman Hyde offered an amendment to the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare prohibiting the use of federal funds for most abortions.

The battle did not end with its passage. The Hyde Amendment faced immediate legal challenges and years of litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the policy in Harris v. McRae in 1980.

Since then, the Hyde Amendment has been renewed through the annual appropriations process for five decades under Congresses and administrations of both political parties.

Pro-life scholars estimate that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives since its enactment.

“Over 2.6 million lives are Henry Hyde’s extraordinary legacy,” said Tobias. “They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our children and grandchildren. They are people who had the opportunity to live because our nation chose not to use federal tax dollars to pay for their abortions.”

National Right to Life has defended the Hyde Amendment throughout its 50-year history and continues to support making its protections permanent.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and a longtime leader in Congress on pro-life issues, has introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act (H.R. 7). The legislation would make the Hyde Amendment’s protections permanent and government-wide, eliminating the need to renew the core prohibition on federal funding of abortion through the annual appropriations process.

“Congressman Chris Smith has carried forward the work that Henry Hyde began fifty years ago,” said Tobias. “The Hyde Amendment has demonstrated for half a century that preventing taxpayer funding of abortion saves lives. Congress should build on that remarkable legacy by making those protections permanent.”

Congressman Smith’s legislation has previously passed the U.S. House of Representatives on four occasions, but has not been enacted into law.

“National Right to Life was there when Congressman Hyde began this fight fifty years ago, and we remain committed to preserving and strengthening the life-saving principle that bears his name,” said Tobias. “The Hyde Amendment is more than an appropriations provision. Its legacy can be measured in millions of human lives.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of affiliates in each of the 50 states, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.