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When President Biden began assembling his Cabinet, several commentators predicted that his presidency would be something of an Obama third term. But now Biden has broken further from those predictions in his budget proposal by gutting the Hyde Amendment a long-held and popular policy that prevents federal taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortions.

The Obama administration maintained this commonsense compromise even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress; and if theyre smart and reasonable, some congressional Democrats today will wake up and do the same.

The Hyde Amendment first passed in 1976 with bipartisan support. In fact,a majorityof the House members who voted for it were Democrats. The Supreme Courtupheldthe provision in 1980, and its been a point of strong agreement for many Americans, both pro-life and pro-choice, long since.

AsSlatedetailedin the debate sparked by Bidens 2019 flip-flop, poll after poll shows that a strong majority of Americans consistently support the Hyde Amendment.Slatefound that the average [polling] gap between the pro-funding and anti-funding positions is 19 percentage points, and that, even among self-identified Democrats, the polling gap inoppositionto the Hyde Amendment lingered in mere single digits. This data is well-reflected in state abortion policy, too. Efforts to channel state tax dollars (which are not touched by the Hyde Amendment) directly toward abortions have succeeded in onlyseven state legislatures.

President Biden has stepped far beyondRoe v. Wadesright to privacy when he defends Hyde bysayingabortion-seeking women also need the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right via taxpayer financial support. This logic doesnt hold at all.

America is a free country where we enjoy a great many rights, such as a First Amendment right to publish paid ads promoting our policy views free from government censorship, and a Second Amendment right to own a handgun. But it does not follow that we also have a right to force other people to pay for those activities. No serious person believes that. And this principle certainly holds true for forcing Americans to pay for abortions.

The logical inconsistency trend in anti-Hyde abortion activism extends tomanywidely-readcommentatorstrying to discredit the Hyde Amendment by calling it a decades-old or decades-long ban, as if that is a discrediting factor or an indication of bad policy. Should we also pejoratively refer toRoe v. Wadeas decades-old? These journalists and activists would surely say no. The double standard is clear.

The radicals trying to repeal the Hyde Amendment are not pro-choice. They are simply pro-abortion.

DeniseBurkeis senior counsel atAlliance Defending Freedom(@Alliance Defends).

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Biden's new proposal on the Hyde Amendment is illogical, unpopular | TheHill - The Hill