emma_goldman
30th September 2006, 03:09
Honor the Memory of Rosie Jimenez: It's Time to Take Action to Repeal the Hyde Amendment!
In June 1976, three years after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Health, Education, and Welfare budget banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. This is known as the Hyde Amendment, named for its sponsor, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill). When the amendment failed to pass in the Senate, the issue reached an impasse.
Although President Gerald Ford had indicated he would veto such a provision, he reversed his position once the 1976 Presidential campaign swung into full gear, and Jimmy Carter, the Democratic nominee, emphasized his personal opposition to abortion and made it clear that he favored the restriction of federal funding for abortions. Without the opposition of President Ford, the Senate passed the Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976. It went into effect in August 1977, after court challenges to its constitutionality were rejected.
Since then, the Hyde Amendment has been inserted each year into the budget of HEW, now Health and Human Services (HHS), often without debate. It has varied in its exact restrictions, although it has virtually eliminated federal funding for abortions to those receiving Medicaid in its several forms. The current version of the Hyde Amendment allows for federally funded abortions under Medicaid only if the pregnant woman's life is in danger.
Seventeen states have stepped in and allocated funds to maintain coverage of abortions for Medicaid recipients. Those states include New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, California and Massachusetts. New York covers some recipients but not all. Thirty-three states do not fund abortions for women covered by Medicaid. In those states, the Hyde Amendment has stripped low-income women of a basic right.
In the 1980s, Congress passed into law measures that widened the prohibition on federal funding of abortions. These provisions continue to affect millions of women. Those targeted include: 1) federal employees and their dependents; 2) Native Americans; 3) Military personnel and their dependents; 4) federal prisoners; 5) low-income residents of the District of Columbia.
The Hyde Amendment does matter. Since its passage, hundreds of thousands of women who would have had abortions had the procedure been covered by Medicaid are forced to carry their pregnancies to term. Others manage to raise the funds needed to have abortions, creating real financial problems for them and their families. Most of these women have legal, safe abortions, but a significant number are desperate enough to undergo illegal abortions, risking serious injury and even death.
One of the women who gave her life exercising her right to control her body was Rosie Jimenez. On October 3, 1977, this young woman from McAllen, Texas, died from complications arising from a back-alley abortion. Ms Jimenez was unwilling to divert the money she had saved to continue her college education to pay the costs of a clinic abortion. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment.
From 1992 to 2002, a coalition of organizations organized a day of protest in memory of Rosie Jimenez and to call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. We believe that reviving October 3 as a day of protest is an essential component of the abortion rights struggle.
Continuing to acquiesce to the Hyde Amendment perpetuates a dual, unjust situation whereby women with money have access to safe abortions, while women with publicly funded health care do not. Only our grassroots efforts will put repeal of the discriminatory and unjust Hyde Amendment on the national agenda.
Women's Commission of the Socialist Party-USA c/o Susan Dorazio, (413) 367-9356, [email protected]
In June 1976, three years after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Health, Education, and Welfare budget banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. This is known as the Hyde Amendment, named for its sponsor, Representative Henry Hyde (R-Ill). When the amendment failed to pass in the Senate, the issue reached an impasse.
Although President Gerald Ford had indicated he would veto such a provision, he reversed his position once the 1976 Presidential campaign swung into full gear, and Jimmy Carter, the Democratic nominee, emphasized his personal opposition to abortion and made it clear that he favored the restriction of federal funding for abortions. Without the opposition of President Ford, the Senate passed the Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976. It went into effect in August 1977, after court challenges to its constitutionality were rejected.
Since then, the Hyde Amendment has been inserted each year into the budget of HEW, now Health and Human Services (HHS), often without debate. It has varied in its exact restrictions, although it has virtually eliminated federal funding for abortions to those receiving Medicaid in its several forms. The current version of the Hyde Amendment allows for federally funded abortions under Medicaid only if the pregnant woman's life is in danger.
Seventeen states have stepped in and allocated funds to maintain coverage of abortions for Medicaid recipients. Those states include New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, California and Massachusetts. New York covers some recipients but not all. Thirty-three states do not fund abortions for women covered by Medicaid. In those states, the Hyde Amendment has stripped low-income women of a basic right.
In the 1980s, Congress passed into law measures that widened the prohibition on federal funding of abortions. These provisions continue to affect millions of women. Those targeted include: 1) federal employees and their dependents; 2) Native Americans; 3) Military personnel and their dependents; 4) federal prisoners; 5) low-income residents of the District of Columbia.
The Hyde Amendment does matter. Since its passage, hundreds of thousands of women who would have had abortions had the procedure been covered by Medicaid are forced to carry their pregnancies to term. Others manage to raise the funds needed to have abortions, creating real financial problems for them and their families. Most of these women have legal, safe abortions, but a significant number are desperate enough to undergo illegal abortions, risking serious injury and even death.
One of the women who gave her life exercising her right to control her body was Rosie Jimenez. On October 3, 1977, this young woman from McAllen, Texas, died from complications arising from a back-alley abortion. Ms Jimenez was unwilling to divert the money she had saved to continue her college education to pay the costs of a clinic abortion. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment.
From 1992 to 2002, a coalition of organizations organized a day of protest in memory of Rosie Jimenez and to call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. We believe that reviving October 3 as a day of protest is an essential component of the abortion rights struggle.
Continuing to acquiesce to the Hyde Amendment perpetuates a dual, unjust situation whereby women with money have access to safe abortions, while women with publicly funded health care do not. Only our grassroots efforts will put repeal of the discriminatory and unjust Hyde Amendment on the national agenda.
Women's Commission of the Socialist Party-USA c/o Susan Dorazio, (413) 367-9356, [email protected]