This is an abortion rights demonstration in 1972.
People marched to demand the right to legal abortions.
And the next year, the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade granted them that right.
But fast forward almost 50 years, and protests for abortion rights are still happening.
“What do we want?
Access!“
A lot of the fight over abortion policy centers on restrictive laws set by state governments.
And the courts that uphold or strike down those laws.
Including the Supreme Court.
But the President and Congress hold a unique power over abortion access,
because they have the final say on the federal dollars that support it.
In every federal budget for the past 43 years, among all the programs the government funds
— like the military, foreign aid, and education — there’s also language about something
the government can’t spend federal money on:
“coverage of abortion….
Except in the case of “rape or incest” or if the pregnancy would “place the woman
in danger of death.”
This provision is called the Hyde Amendment.
And it disproportionately affects low-income people who rely on federally-funded health
care.
Every president since 1976 has supported the Hyde Amendment by approving an annual federal
budget from Congress that included it.
But the 2020 election could change this, because while one candidate supports the Hyde Amendment,
the other has vowed to oppose it.
The Hyde Amendment’s introduction into the federal budget
Can be traced back to Roe V. Wade, In the years immediately following this decision,
the federal government paid for abortions through Medicaid, which accounted for roughly
a third of all abortion procedures.
But the anti-abortion backlash was swift— Including in Congress.
In 1976, Illinois Representative Henry Hyde proposed the abortion-resticting Hyde Amendment
during an annual budget hearing.
It passed with a 199-165 vote, ending up in that year’s spending bill where it has stayed
ever since voted for by anti-abortion politicians, and
by pro-abortion-rights politicians And, in every case, these budgets have been
approved and signed by the sitting president.
In 1977, Henry Hyde made the intentions of his amendment clear:
He said “I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion,
a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the … Medicaid bill.”
There’s a handful of agencies directly affected by the Hyde Amendment that provide health
care through federal funding, like the Indian Health Service and Peace Corps.
Medicaid is the biggest, though.
It pays for basic health services for just over 76 million people in the US who live
near the poverty line or are disabled.
Part of Medicaid’s funding comes from federal dollars — the other part comes from the
state you live in.
Abortion care in the United States is largely driven by where you live… both in terms
of the availability of services and in addition to that, the ability of insurance to pay for
it These 16 states will help Medicaid users cover
the cost of abortion.
But these 34 states and Washington D.C. won’t.
Anyone seeking an abortion there has to pay the full bill.
That means nearly 8 million people of child-bearing age who live in these states aren’t covered
for abortion services because of the Hyde Amendment.
These Medicaid restrictions place the biggest burden on low-income people.
Laurie Roberts [00:10:16] We could basically quit doing the work we do.
If the Hyde Amendment didn't exist.
Laurie Roberts manages an abortion fund in Alabama, one of the most restrictive states
when it comes to abortion access.
So an abortion fund is a organization that helps people access abortion care.
It can be anything that removes the barriers to getting to and from the clinic.
And then there's just direct financial support for the abortion procedure.
The price of an abortion in the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy, without coverage, is roughly
$500, and it gets more expensive in later weeks of pregnancy.
That’s a lot of money for someone who qualifies for Medicaid.
To be eligible, you have to make less than 138% of the federal poverty line.
For a single person, that’s less than an $18,000 annual income.
For a family of 2, it’s $24,000 dollars.
And for a family of 3, it’s about $30,000 dollars.
And because of racial disparities in our country, Medicaid recipients are more likely to be
Black or Hispanic.
I can personally say what it was like for me...I went to the clinic…
I wanted to have a procedure.
And I couldn't, I didn't have the money in time..That doesn't mean that I don't love
my child...But what it means is I went through a lot of emotional and physical trauma because
what should have been a decision that was only mine was taken away from me.
A study of 269 women from 2015-2017 in Louisiana, a state that doesn’t cover abortion through
Medicaid, shows that 29% of women would have had an abortion had Medicaid covered it.
Which is the intended effect for anti-abortion advocates: fewer people having abortions.
Abortion restrictions like the Hyde Amendment have made their way into other types of health
insurance coverage, too.
In 2010, Congress didn’t pass the Affordable Care Act until it included language saying
marketplace plans don’t have to cover abortion.
Today, these states won’t cover it under marketplace plans.
And these states even restrict private insurance companies from covering the procedure.
And so that more and more people are affected and they may not even know that they've been
affected until they seek abortion care
“But it’s the medicaid restrictions — both federal and state — that specifically target
poor people.”
abortion is like many other services.
If you have means, you can either have insurance that pays for a service or you can afford
to pay for these services out of pocket.
And if it's not offered in a place that's close to you, you can afford to either travel,
get lodging, take time off or get childcare.
All of those things are things that are available to higher income women that may not be available
to lower income women.
The two candidates in the 2020 election are solidly in their partisan corners on the issue
of abortion access.
But that wasn’t always the case.
Joe Biden took office in the Senate in 1973, the same year Roe V. Wade passed.
And he's supported the Hyde Amendment since it entered the federal spending bill in 1976.
But in 2020, this is the landscape: where the state you live in and how much money you
have are the biggest factors in whether someone can access an abortion.
Which is why Joe Biden, as a presidential candidate, says he changed his stance.
"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,"
And Trump has only dug deeper in his anti-abortion position.
"I notified Congress that I would veto any legislation that weakens pro-life policies
It’s also why the stakes for abortion policy for the 2020 election are clear.
It’s a choice between a President who plans to lift this barrier to abortion access for
the country’s most vulnerable people.
And one who will keep the status quo, at their expense.