Donald Trump's suggestion of flexibility on the Hyde Amendment has ignited strong reactions from prominent pro-life leaders, who view it as a fundamental principle of their movement.



Leading members of the pro-life community are expressing concern after Donald Trump suggested Republicans should be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, a long-standing pillar of the movement that bars the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions.

Although Trump campaigned as a supporter of the Hyde Amendment, he struck a more tentative tone Tuesday, telling House Republicans they “have to be a little flexible on Hyde” during negotiations over health care legislation.

“You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work,” Trump said.

The Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision dating to the 1970s that bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. First enacted in 1976, just a few years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, it passed a Democratic-controlled House and Senate and has been renewed repeatedly with the support of nearly every Republican and Democratic president since – including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Although Joe Biden opposed it, Congress nevertheless passed budget resolutions keeping it on the books.

Pro-life groups were quick to push back on Trump’s proposal.

“For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America. “To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment. If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, urged pro-lifers in Congress to stand firm.

“Hyde must be included in any Obamacare reform bill,” she wrote, “or it will be a pro-abortion vote.”

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