众议院民主党人周一采取措施，在没有海德修正案的情况下，推进卫生与公众服务部的新支出法案，这项已有40年历史的条款已经禁止联邦资助对于大多数堕胎来说。
在将支出法案提交给众议院拨款委员会全体成员进行辩论和投票时，民主党人贯彻了乔·拜登总统的预算提案，其中也不包括修正案。众议院民主党人曾表示，他们将走这条路，这样做有效地保证了堕胎权将成为民主党和共和党之间政府资金谈判的核心焦点，共和党拥有阻止民主党的措施未经修改在参议院通过的投票权。
预计众议院全体议员将批准该法案，并将该法案提交众议院表决。鉴于民主党的微弱多数，目前还不清楚该措施是否能在没有海德修正案的情况下清除分裂的议院。
作为参议员，虔诚的天主教徒拜登多年来一直支持海德修正案，但拜登在2019年寻求民主党总统提名时改变了立场。
他说:“如果我相信医疗保健是一项权利，就像我一样，我就不能再支持一项使这项权利依赖于某人邮政编码的修正案。“我不能证明让数百万妇女得不到她们需要的护理和行使受宪法保护的权利的能力是合理的。”
呼吁推翻该法案的民主党人和生殖权利团体表示，该法案对有色人种妇女和低收入群体的影响不成比例。具体来说，该修正案使得依赖政府发行的任何人都极其困难健康保险比如医疗补助来获得堕胎护理。在《患者保护与平价医疗法案》的领导下，越来越多的低收入美国人现在通过联邦政府获得医疗保险，但仍可能面临这些具体的限制。
长期规定的反对者也指出，目前对依靠政府保险的男性护理没有限制。
众议院拨款委员会主席、康涅狄格州的罗莎·德劳罗在周一的委员会听证会上说:“允许海德修正案保留在账簿上对我们的选民是一种伤害。“我们终于做了对我们的母亲、我们的家庭和我们的社区正确的事情，一劳永逸地取消了这项歧视性修正案。”
美国计划生育联合会主席兼首席执行官亚历克西斯·麦克吉尔·约翰逊在一份声明中说，她的组织“非常激动”
“长期以来，种族主义和性别歧视的海德修正案让政府控制了许多低收入人群的个人医疗保健决定。它延伸到我们的联邦监狱系统是残酷和不公正的。你的邮政编码、财务状况、你是否被监禁或你拥有的医疗保险类型，永远不应该决定你可以获得什么样的基本医疗服务，包括堕胎，”她写道。
在过道的另一边，众议院小组最高共和党人、得克萨斯州众议员凯·格兰杰(Kay Granger)警告说，推翻海德修正案将“破坏委员会几十年来的两党合作”，并称其“与大多数美国人的观点不合拍。”
“拜登-佩洛西民主党人正在废除数十年来两党达成的迫使纳税人资助堕胎的共识，加倍打击极端主义，以安抚日益激进的基础，”苏珊·b·安东尼·李斯特(Susan B. Anthony List)总统马乔里·丹内费尔泽(Marjorie Dannenfelser)在一份声明中表示。“这项法案过于极端，无法在参议院获得通过，是支持堕胎的民主党人的一大政治负担。”
华盛顿参议员帕蒂·默里。参议院处理医疗保健支出的小组的主席，向美国广播公司新闻承认了这样一个现实，即没有海德修正案，支出法案就无法在众议院获得通过。
“嗯，我支持它，”她谈到修正案被排除在外时说。“但我必须获得选票，这就是我们正在关注的。”
根据古特马赫研究所的数据，仅今年一年，16个州的州立法机构就通过了80多项堕胎限制。两党的支持者都在为最高法院做准备，最高法院以其新的保守派多数，将审理一个重大案件，挑战罗伊诉韦德案中确立的当前堕胎权先例。
Democrats advance spending bill that would overturn the Hyde Amendment
House Democrats on Monday took steps to advance a new spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services without the Hyde Amendment, a 40-year-old provision that hasbanned federal fundingfor most abortions.
In moving the spending bill to the full House Appropriations Committee for debate and a vote, Democrats followed through on President Joe Biden's proposed budget,which also did not includethe amendment. House Democrats had indicated they would go this route and in doing so have effectively guaranteed that abortion access will be a central focus of government funding negotiations between Democrats and Republicans -- who have the votes to block the Democrats' measure from passing the Senate without changes.
The full House panel is expected to approve the bill and send the measure to the chamber for a vote. It's not yet clear if the measure can clear the narrowly divided chamber without the Hyde Amendment, given Democrats' slim majority.
As a senator, the devoutly Catholic Biden supported the Hyde Amendment over the years, but Biden reversed his stance in 2019 as he sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
"If I believe heath care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's zip code," he said. "I can't justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right."
Democrats and reproductive rights groups that have called for the measure to be overturned said it disproportionately impacts women of color and low-income communities. Specifically, the amendment makes it extremely difficult for anyone who relies on government-issuedhealth insurancesuch as Medicaid to access abortion care. Under the Affordable Care Act, an expanded group of low-income Americans now receive health insurance through the federal government but can still face these specific restrictions.
Opponents of the long-standing rule pointed out too that there are currently no restrictions on care for men who rely on government insurance.
"Allowing the Hyde Amendment to remain on the books is a disservice to our constituents," House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said in Monday's committee hearing. "We are finally doing what is right for our mothers, our families and our communities by striking this discriminatory amendment once and for all."
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement that her organization was "thrilled."
"For far too long, the racist and sexist Hyde Amendment has put the government in control of a personal health care decision for many people with low incomes. And its extension to our federal prison system is cruel and unjust. Your ZIP code, financial situation, whether you're incarcerated or the type of health insurance you have should never determine what kind of essential health care services you can access, including abortion," she wrote.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the top Republican on the House panel, warned that overturning the Hyde Amendment would "destroy decades of bipartisan work" on the committee and called it "out of step with the view of most Americans."
"Biden-Pelosi Democrats are scrapping decades of bipartisan consensus to force taxpayers to fund abortion, doubling down on extremism to appease an increasingly radical base," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. "This bill is too extreme to pass the Senate and is a major political liability for pro-abortion Democrats."
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chairwoman of the panel that handles health care spending in the Senate, acknowledged to ABC News the reality that the votes just aren't there for the spending bill to pass the chamber without the Hyde Amendment.
"Well I support it," she said of the amendment's exclusion. "But I have to have the votes and that's what we're looking at."
According to the Guttmacher Institute, state legislatures in 16 states have passed more than 80 abortion restrictions this year alone. Advocates on both sides of the aisle are bracing for the Supreme Court, with its new conservative majority, to hear a major case challenging the current abortion right precedents established in Roe v. Wade.
