Steve Daines (R-UT) and 48 other senators sent a letter to Schumer opposing any legislation that would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortions
Forty-eight U.S. Senators sent a letter Friday (Feb. 5) to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying they would block any spending bill that would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortions.
In the letter to Schumer, Senate Pro-Life Caucus founder and Chairman Steve Daines (R-UT), along with 47 other senators, said they oppose funding any legislation on abortion without incorporating the Hyde Amendment or similar pro-life protections.
The Hyde Amendment has been added to the bill since 1976 to prevent taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortion providers.
“We are strongly opposed to allowing taxpayer (money) to fund abortion on demand and to eliminating this more than 40-year (bipartisan) consensus. Instead, we urge you (Schumer) to allow the Senate to continue its long tradition of bipartisanship to enact annual appropriations and other health-related spending with long-standing pro-life protections,” the 48 senators told Majority Leader Schumer.
“Abortion is not health care, it is a cruel procedure that destroys the life of an innocent unborn child. The Hyde Amendment reflects a consensus that millions of Americans who are staunchly opposed to abortion should not be forced to pay for it or use their taxpayer dollars to encourage it.” They added.
President Biden has supported the Hyde Amendment for decades, but changed his position in 2019.
Republicans wrote to Schumer this week pointing out that in a recent poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans said they oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortions. They also cited an analysis that noted that the Hyde Amendment is estimated to have saved more than 2.4 million American lives, or more than 60,000 lives per year.
The senators also stressed that other pro-life protections in federal law should be preserved, including the ban on funding abortions and abortion coverage for federal employee health benefit plans.
“We are united in our determination to oppose any changes to federal law that would shake the nearly half-century-old bipartisan consensus against taxpayer funding of abortion on demand and against otherwise threatening the lives of unborn children. Therefore, we pledge to vote against advancing any legislation that would eliminate or weaken the pro-life protections in the Hyde Amendment or any other existing law, or otherwise undermine existing federal pro-life policies,” the senators wrote.
A similar letter was signed by 200 Republican House members last month.
Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Schumer has expressed support for abortion in the past and voted against pro-life bills such as the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act (BASP). On the other hand, Schumer has voted dozens of times in favor of including the Hyde Amendment in annual funding measures.
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