Fifty years ago this Sept. 30, three years after the tragic Roe v. Wade decision, an Illinois congressman named Henry Hyde added a clause to an annual appropriations bill for the departments of health, education, and other related agencies.
That clause, despite continued efforts to remove it, stands to this day and ensures that any funds designated for those agencies spent on health coverage do not go toward elective abortions. The clause would become known as “The Hyde Amendment.”
Hyde, a staunch pro-life Catholic, wanted to ensure that taxpayers who opposed the taking of innocent human life would not be forced to violate their consciences by paying for abortions through their federal tax dollars. He believed this amendment was in alignment with previous legislative efforts to protect and defend unalienable rights.
Naturally, pro-abortion advocates sued, or launched legislative efforts, to have the amendment struck down. But despite their efforts, the Hyde Amendment remains — ironically, longer than the now overturned Roe v. Wade decision that inspired it, despite yearly challenges to its existence. In addition, the amendment was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 in the case of Harris v. McRae — the very court that had issued the Roe decision seven years before.
It has been estimated that the amendment has saved 2.6 million lives that would have never seen the light of day without the courage and foresight of Hyde. Before the amendment was enacted, nearly 300,000 abortions were performed annually and paid for with federal Medicaid funds.
In 2009, the Guttmacher Institute published a literature review of peer-reviewed studies on Medicaid funding restrictions for abortions. It found that out of 38 studies concerned with birth rates, one-fourth provided statistically significant evidence that the Hyde Amendment led to a decrease in abortion rates.
Thus, the Hyde Amendment goes beyond just words. It has literally saved millions of lives.
Hyde’s Faith
Hyde knew that he could not remain silent as these innocent lives were being taken. He would famously state:
When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God, and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, “Spare him because he loved us,” and God will look at you and say not, “Did you succeed?” but “Did you try?”
As a man of deep, abiding faith, Hyde believed that he, like us all, would someday be held accountable by God for his actions or inaction. While never professing to be perfect, because none of us are, he also knew that one day he could not stand before God, and say, “I did nothing” as millions of innocent lives were prematurely taken in the name of “choice.”
Hyde passed away to his eternal reward in 2007. But he has left a legacy that continues to save lives today. His steadfast dedication to the protection of human life as well as to the freedom of conscience of pro-life Americans played an important role in the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
As pro-life Americans continue to fight for and defend the lives of preborn children, we can thank Hyde for his faithfulness, steadfastness, and obedience to God’s call to stand for and protect the “least of these” — those children would have suffered the ultimate harm.
Let’s hope and pray that the amendment continues to stand for not just another 50 years, but beyond that, so every life will be seen as precious and cherished, instead of an inconvenience. That is the legacy of Henry Hyde.
