Manchin may be the only one who can save the Hyde Amendment

It could all be up to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to preserve the life-saving Hyde amendment in the budget reconciliation process.  

If pro-abortion Democrat senators succeed in first passing the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, they then intend to use $3.5 trillion budget bill to unlock billions in federal taxpayer dollars for abortion by radically transforming Medicaid. And using the budget reconciliation process, Senate Democrats could do this without a single Republican vote. That makes Joe Manchin’s vote and his clear public promise singularly critical to preserve the Hyde family of amendments which protect American taxpayers from funding abortions against their will. 

In his recent budget proposal, President Biden called for this dramatic transformation of Medicaid. It is well-known that Biden currently supports taxpayer funding of abortion, something he made clear in his infamous 48-hour flip-flop on the issue during the 2019 Democratic primary. That was after spending decades of his political career protecting the conscience rights of Americans, including his fellow Catholics, who are morally opposed to public funding of abortion.  

Biden’s betrayal and public denouncement of Hyde stands in contrast to Catholic Sen. Joe Manchin’s promises to defend Hyde. But while Manchin has made explicit he will insist on Hyde protections being included in appropriations, he hasn’t specifically addressed this possible bypass of Hyde during reconciliation. 

The language for this transformation of Medicaid is in Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.) legislation which expands Medicaid without including the Hyde amendment. According to past court decisions, in the absence of an explicit block on abortion funding, any federal health care program must cover abortions.  

Warnock’s bill fulfills Biden’s goal by creating a federal public option that provides premium-free, Medicaid-like coverage to low-income residents. It is particularly ironic that Warnock’s bill involves Medicaid since Congress originally passed the Hyde amendment to ensure Medicaid dollars couldn’t be used to pay for abortions.  

In poll after poll, a majority of Americans oppose the government using their taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Democrats are resorting to this backdoor method of expanding abortion funding, because they know they would lose an honest up-or-down vote on Hyde.  

For over 40 years, the Hyde amendment has saved lives. It has been estimated that approximately 2.4 million more abortions would have occurred without this legislative provision. Once up on a time, this issue united Democrats and Republicans. But the latest wave of pro-abortion Democrats, and those like President Biden who have flip-flopped on the issue of life, want to force American taxpayers to fund the life-ending procedure.  Sen. Joe Machin and all Republicans should block this and any other attempt to circumvent the will of the American people. 

Biden, Warnock, and their allies in the Senate would like to hijack the infrastructure and reconciliation bills to advance their extreme pro-abortion agenda. Joe Manchin may well be the one man who can stop what could be the largest expansion of federal abortion funding in American history. Already abandoned by President Biden, faithful Catholics and pro-life Americans across the country pray that Manchin keeps his word and stands strong in the breach.

Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D. is a senior political advisor to CatholicVote and former congressman for Kansas’s 1st District.