Executive Summary
The future of access to abortion services is at a crossroads. The Biden-Harris administration and 117th Congress could commit to dismantling the injustices of the Trump-Pence years and long-standing systems of oppression, or they could retreat and maintain the status quo that so harms low-income and underserved communities.
This issue brief provides a brief history of the Hyde Amendment and examines its function as a de facto ban on abortion services for people who receive health coverage or care through federal health care programs and plans. Because the Hyde amendment initially focused on Medicaid, this issue brief explores the history of that de facto ban and examines the Hyde Amendment’s long-lasting and significant public health and economic harms to low-income and underserved people. Finally, it provides an overview of the EACH Act of 2021 (read the House version here).
