People Power United joined coalition efforts to Congress to eliminate the Hyde Amendment during the appropriations process
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People Power United joined coalition efforts to Congress to eliminate the Hyde Amendment during the appropriations process. Shout out to All* Above All for leading this effort.
July 30, 2025
Dear Chairs Collins and Cole, Vice Chair Murray, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As organizations committed to ensuring all people can access reproductive health care, including abortion, however much money they make, no matter where they’re from, or whatever their race or gender, we believe that each of us should be able to make decisions about pregnancy and parenting that are best for our families without political interference. However, policymakers have enacted bans on insurance coverage of abortion that push this decision out of reach for many, particularly those working to make ends meet. To this end, we urge you to put forth appropriations legislation for Fiscal Year 2026 that does not include bans or restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion.
Since the first passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, the appropriations process has been used as a vehicle to systematically deny insurance coverage of abortion. Studies show that when policymakers place restrictions on Medicaid coverage of abortion, it forces one in four poor women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.1Additionally, a woman who seeks an abortion, but is denied, is more likely to fall into poverty than one who is able to get an abortion.2
Since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization erroneously held that there is no constitutional right to abortion, 19 states have outright banned the procedure or imposed a ban at an arbitrary point in pregnancy. More than 25 million women aged 15-44 live in states where there are more restrictions imposed than prior to the Dobbs decision. This is nearly 1 in 5 women.3 As of 2024, 35% or 5.5 million women aged 15-49 who are enrolled in
This is a crucial moment for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, for women, LGBTQI folks, immigrants, and young people. As the Medicaid program faces deep cuts and reproductive health clinics across the country face potential closures due to the recent passage of H.R. 1,5these individuals are the most harmed by the Hyde Amendment and other coverage bans. We are fighting for a future in which abortion is affordable, available, and supported for anyone who seeks care — without barriers based on who you are, where you are from, or how much you earn. We are reimagining a world in which each of us makes a living wage and everyone has access to the full-spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion.
We urge you, as leaders of the Appropriations Committees, to draft and pass federal spending bills that end the shameful legacy of the Hyde Amendment and related abortion coverage restrictions. Now is the time to take action for people working to make ends meet and stop the relentless attacks on abortion coverage.
We ask that FY 2026 appropriations legislation be free of abortion coverage restrictions, including those that impact the following populations: (i) Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries; (ii) federal employees and their dependents; (iii) Peace Corps volunteers; (iv) Native American people (iv) women in federal prisons and detention centers, including those detained for immigration purposes; and (v) low-income people in the District of Columbia through the use of local funds. This includes the Weldon Amendment, which has been attached to Hyde and used to threaten states that seek to ensure abortion coverage. Additionally, we urge you to reject any efforts to add new policy riders that seek to undermine access to health care.
Each of us should be able to make decisions about our health and our futures with dignity and have control over our own economic security. Yet these policies have harmed our families, our communities, and our health for far too long. We implore the 119th Congress to lift abortion coverage bans and end the Hyde Amendment.
Sincerely,
Abortion Forward
ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
Advocates for Youth
AIDS United
All* Above All
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
American Atheists
American Humanist Association
Arkansas Black Gay Mens Forum
Black Women's Health Imperative
Center for Biological Diversity
Clearinghouse on Women's Issues
Community Catalyst
Doctors for America
End Rape On Campus
Equal Rights Advocates
Feminist Majority Foundation
Guttmacher Institute
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America Ibis Reproductive Health
Institute for Women's Policy Research
International Center for Research on Women
Ipas US
League of Women Voters of the United States
Legal Momentum, the Women's Legal Defense & Education Fund me too. International
NAPAWF
National Abortion Federation
National Council of Jewish Women
National Network of Abortion Funds
National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
National Partnership Women & Families
National Women's Law Center Action Fund
Partners in Abortion Care
People Power United
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Positive Women's Network-USA
Power to Decide
Public Justice Center
Reproductive Freedom for All
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change
SiX Action
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Supermajority
True North Research
UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
Women's March
1 Henshaw SK et al., Restrictions on Medicaid Funding for Abortions: A Literature Review, Guttmacher Institute, 2009. https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/pubs/MedicaidLitReview.pdf
2 Foster, D. G. (2020). The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having--or Being Denied--an Abortion. Scribner.
3 Santhanam, L. (2023, June 24). A year after fall of Roe v. Wade, 25 million women live in states with abortion bans or restrictions. PBS NewsHour.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/a-year-after-fall-of-roe-v-wade-25-million-women-live-in-states-with-abortio n-bans-or-restrictions
Medicaid live in states where abortion is legal but not covered by the program except in Hyde-allowable circumstances.4
4 Kaiser Family Foundation. (2023). Medicaid coverage for women.
https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/medicaid-coverage-for-women/
5 Planned Parenthood. (2025, July 4). Planned Parenthood defunded—but we’re still here. Planned Parenthood. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/blog/planned-parenthood-defunded-but-were-still-here
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