Letter to Hon Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader - Sens. Cramer, Daines, Colleagues Pledge to Block Bills that Undermine the Hyde Amendment or Current Pro-Life Protections under the Law

Letter

Dear Leader Schumer:
We believe in the value of every child. Each precious child should be honored by our nation and
protected by our laws.
The Hyde Amendment is the law of the land, as has been so since 1976. The Hyde Amendment
has enjoyed decades of bipartisan support, including from then-Senator Joe Biden, and has been
signed into law by Democrat and Republican Presidents alike. We are deeply opposed to efforts
to allow taxpayer funding of abortion on demand and eliminate this more than four-decade-old
consensus. Instead, we urge you to allow the Senate to continue its long tradition of bipartisan
cooperation in enacting annual appropriations, as well as other health-related spending, with
longstanding pro-life protections intact.
Abortion is not health care; rather, it is a brutal procedure that destroys the life of an innocent
unborn child. The Hyde Amendment reflects a consensus that millions of pro-life Americans
who are profoundly opposed to abortion should not be coerced into paying for it or incentivizing
it with their taxpayer dollars. A substantial majority of the American public agrees. A 2021
Marist poll found that nearly six in ten Americans, including even more than a third of those who
identify as pro-choice, oppose the use of their taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Most
importantly, the Hyde Amendment saves lives. Analysis by the Charlotte Lozier Institute
estimates that over 2.4 million Americans owe their lives to the Hyde Amendment, and it
routinely saves more than 60,000 lives every year.
In addition to preserving the Hyde Amendment's inclusion in the annual Labor, Health and
Human Services Appropriations Act, it is equally important that the Senate maintain all other
longstanding pro-life protections in Federal law. These include, but are not limited to,
prohibitions on funding for abortion and abortion coverage for the Federal Employee Health
Benefits Program, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as foreign aid due to the Helms
Amendment. Other longstanding pro-life provisions prevent the District of Columbia from
funding elective abortions, prohibit the destruction of human embryos in federally funded
research, prohibit funding for abortion-related lobbying overseas, as well as protect the
conscience rights of Americans opposed to abortion.
We are united in our resolve to guard against any changes to Federal law that would unsettle
nearly half a century of bipartisan consensus against taxpayer funding for abortion on demand, or
otherwise threaten the lives of unborn children. Accordingly, we are committed to vote against
the advancement of any legislation that would eliminate or weaken the Hyde Amendment or any
other current-law pro-life protections, or otherwise undermine existing Federal pro-life policy.