The Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal funding, such as Medicaid and Medicare, to be used for abortion. Since 1996, it has included exemptions for life-saving care and pregnancy terminations as a result of rape or incest.
In August 2022, President Biden issued an Executive Order that urged the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary to extend Medicaid funding to assist patients travelling out-of-state to receive abortion care. In response, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an “Action Plan to Protect and Strengthen Reproductive Care” that included new Medicaid provisions and the Department of Justice Office of Legal Council (DOJ OLC) issued an opinion stating that the Hyde Amendment only applied to abortion procedures, and as such, federal funds could be used to assist patients with abortion travel costs.
Project 2025 aims to eliminate abortion at a federal level. By withdrawing the current interpretation of the Hyde Amendment, abortion care would be even more difficult to access as more states pass legislation to criminalize it. This would be particularly harmful to low-income individuals who would lose out on one of the few existing forms of monetary abortion assistance.
