Under decades-old Hyde Amendment, millions of Americans already live in a 'post-Roe' world

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Rachael Lorenzo tried to seek an abortion after doctors found a pregnancy complication that would likely lead to a miscarriage.

But her clinic on the Acoma Pueblo, an Indigenous community in west central New Mexico, didn’t offer abortions. Clinicians said to wait until the miscarriage occurred naturally.

-snip-

Lorenzo learned federal funds, such as those that support the agency responsible for Indigenous health care, the Indian Health Service, can’t be spent on abortions.

That’s because of the Hyde Amendment, a provision passed three years after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that restricts federal spending on abortions. Because of Hyde, millions of people across the U.S. already live in a “post-Roe” world, out of reach of abortion care.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/under-decades-old-hyde-amendment-093012825.html

[Novara]

1. Didn't they pass a budget with repeal of the Hyde amendment in it?

My memory is fuzzy but I remember they passed something and snuck that in. Maybe it didn't get through?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. From the article:

he Biden administration excluded the amendment from its 2023 federal spending proposal, but Republicans are expected to oppose the move. The administration also tried to eliminate the rider from the 2022 budget but conceded to Republican demands. Biden supported the rider for years but reversed his stance while campaigning for president.

[Demsrule86]

3. That is not true ...planned parenthood has a sliding scale so many women can get abortions...

The end of Roe is a nightmare.

[blogslug]

4. What if a person lives in an area where the closest abortion provider is 400 miles away?

Amarillo, TX has a population of roughly 200,000 people. It had a Planned Parenthood but it never provided abortion services. The closest PP that did was in Lubbock, 2 hours away. In fact the Amarillo PP had to eventually disaffiliate with Planned Parenthood just to keep the doors open for its myriad other health services. Then Lubbock stopped allowing abortion services so the closest place to get one was either Dallas or in Oklahoma. Then Oklahoma put the kibosh on abortion services. I could go on...

Accessibility is part of affordability. It costs a good $1000 for a Amarillo/Dallas round-trip flight. One could drive but one must have a car. That kind of trip isn't just a day off from work either.

[Demsrule86]

5. Ok, no doubt some people who live in the middle of nowhere also have poor medical coverage...

however, doing away with Roe...is dreadful and will be way worse for everyone than the current situation...we are looking at jail for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies that kill women because they are not removed. So the idea that it is already so bad is not true.

[Demsrule86]

6. Ok, no doubt some people who live in the middle of nowhere also have poor medical coverage...

however, doing away with Roe...is dreadful and will be way worse for everyone than the current situation...we are looking at jail for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies that kill women because they are not removed. So the idea that it is already so bad is not true.

[blogslug]

7. I'm not disagreeing with you about an end to Roe

What I'm saying and what the article (I think) is saying is that for many, they haven't had access to abortion services for decades. Pointing that out doesn't negate the need to preserve Roe.

Also, a city of 200,000 people isn't "the middle of nowhere".

[Demsrule86]

8. In poor women do have access...and we have some very rural areas.

[blogslug]

9. Fine

Everything's fine. It's all fine. It's all just great right now. I'm out of this thread.

[Solly Mack]

16. Exactly.

Again, thank you.

[ReluctanceTango]

23. You haven't been to Amarillo, have you?

That's a city of 200,000 that feels like 2,000.

Fricking racist dump. Lubbock, too. A pox on both of them.

[blogslug]

24. I was born and raised there

I don't care to talk to you about anything

[ReluctanceTango]

26. I'll get over it, I promise

[Solly Mack]

15. Thank you.

[ReluctanceTango]

22. Amarillo is 322 miles from Dallas, not 400.

If that's not enough, Pueblo, CO is 260 miles away, Albuquerque is about 250 miles away, and Santa Fe is about 235 miles from Amarillo. Plus, New Mexico has no restrictions on abortion, not even a requirement for parental consent if a minor is seeking one. It's also a straight shot from Amarillo on I-40 to Albuquerque.

Yes, each is still a long drive, but most Texans don't think of distance the way people in other states do. I've had family business in the McAllen area, about the same distance from me as Albuquerque is to Amarillo. I'd wake up around 4, get on the road by 5, drive down, get there around 10-11, take care of my business, and head back home. If I left around 4 pm, I'd be home around 9-10.

So if someone has a car and a friend to tag along for moral support, then the drive is entirely doable as a one-day affair. Wouldn't even require staying overnight. It would be great if Amarillo women could get what they need closer to home, but they can't. They'll do what they have to do if they can get it done at all, because women don't let much stand in the way of something they need to do.

It sucks that we have to go to that much effort, but that's how it is. As long as Colorado and New Mexico can provide the service, Texas women will be heading to both.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Abortion access in this country is already a nightmare. And it's about to get worse.

[Solly Mack]

11. Thank you.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. I'm like...

[Solly Mack]

14. I know, right? Warnings about how the Hyde Amendment has harmed women have been

around for decades. This isn't new and it for damn sure isn't false.

Warnings about the lack of accessibility to abortion and other health services have been going on for years. That it was already bad and getting worse isn't a denial of the widespread danger overturning Roe v. Wade will bring, it is merely stating that for a lot of women the situation is already dire.

[Solly Mack]

21. It is true. Roe was passed in 1973 and Hyde a few years later. Women of color and poor women

have been struggling for decades to get abortions.

The idea that a sliding pay-scale makes all the problems go away is naive, especially when the hurdles women have to overcome to get to a planned parenthood can be enormous.

Add to Hyde all the laws passed over the years that have reduced the number of clinics in a state to one, and in some cases, zero, and those hurdles become higher and harder.

Yes, it will be worse all over should Roe be overturned. But please don't downplay, or worse - deny, the hardships already faced by minorities and low-income women.

Abortion funds have been around a long time, and for a reason. But those funds aren't limitless and never have been.

The fact is, for many women, they are already experiencing what it will be like for all women to live in a post-Roe world. Acknowledging that in no way denies the widespread impact on all women if Roe is overturned. It is simply acknowledging what it is already like for far too many women.

[ReluctanceTango]

25. And that's been true since the 80s

Used to, even smallish cities had someone providing abortions. Where I lived, 55K population, we had a clinic for it. Then he died in the late 80s, and the loonies made sure no other MD would dare to replace him.

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[Solly Mack]

17. How The Hyde Amendment Hurts Women

How The Hyde Amendment Hurts Women



On Sept. 30, 1976, the Hyde Amendment became law, making it nearly impossible for low-income women to cover the cost of an abortion though insurance. In the 40 years since its adoption, the Hyde Amendment has been expanded, restricted, and clarified, but never to the significant benefit of the women affected by it. In fact, the Hyde Amendment has hurt women at every step of the way, restricting women's reproductive freedom and creating an impossible cycle for low-income individuals.

This article contains a hopeful headline that did not come to pass.

The Hyde Amendment Has Been Hurting Women for 40 Years...

Ending Hyde is about restoring dignity and fair treatment to poor women and women of color. It’s about making sure a woman who’s made the profound decision to end her pregnancy gets the care she needs without having to turn her life upside down. It’s about compassion and respect.

The Hyde Amendment: Disproportionately Affecting Minority Women Since 1976

In 1976, just three years after the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in Roe v. Wade, Republican congressman Henry Hyde attached a little-known amendment to a Health and Human Services appropriations bill that would shift the course of reproductive justice in the United States for decades to come. The Hyde Amendment banned the use of federal funds within the Department of Health and Human Services for providing abortions, with limited exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and endangerment of the mother’s life. Despite arguments against the amendment from women’s rights activists, reproductive justice non-profits, and organizations like the ACLU, Democratic and Republican politicians alike have continued to support the amendment’s passage, often due to political negotiations rather than personal convictions. Though this may seem innocuous, the tragedy of the Hyde Amendment is that it disproportionately affects the lives of some of America’s most vulnerable—impoverished women, often in minority communities, who rely on Medicaid and can least afford paying for abortions out-of-pocket.

Many feminist concerns of the 21st Century (particularly the work/life balance issue popularly addressed by figures like Sheryl Sandberg and Barnard College president Debora Spar) are framed in the context of the lives of middle-and upper-class white women. But in sharp contrast to the debates around “leaning in,” reproductive justice is highly intersectional and cannot be divorced from racism, classism, and poverty.

How the Hyde Amendment and H.R. 7 Punish America’s Poor Women

“While H.R. 7 does have sweeping impact on all women, it has a disproportionate impact on low-income women and women of color,” Ann Marie Benitez, senior director of government relations at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, told NBC News. “As an organization that represents Latinas, we’re even more outraged about this, and we will continue to fight it.”

And there are many more articles and horror stories out there.

[blogslug]

18. Thank you

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Yes. Thank you. The one I always add: People have died because of the Hyde amendment.

https://www.texasobserver.org/rosie-jimenez-abortion-medicaid/

Parts of Jimenez’s life had been tumultuous — in February 1977 she had her second abortion — but she was working toward a steadier existence. She had a longtime boyfriend, Jesse, who was in prison, and they planned to marry. “She was going to college to have a better life, that was her goal,” says her daughter Monique, now 42. “I know that she saw my grandparents struggle, and she wanted to provide me with a better life.”

But by then, the Hyde Amendment had been in place for two months. During debate over the legislation, its author, U.S. Representative Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, told colleagues he hoped the bill would prevent anyone — “a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman” — from having an abortion. Instead, it made the terrain more dangerous.

Without Medicaid, OB-GYNs were too expensive for some women needing abortions not only in McAllen but across the nation. Jimenez refused to resort to using her financial aid check; she still had two years left in school. “I said, ‘Then let’s have a fundraiser,’” Rivera says. “‘We’ll have bake sales. We’ll come up with the money.’” Jimenez was noncommittal, and a few days later, Rivera left town to visit her mother in Weslaco.

(snip)
In the years since, as the facts about Jimenez’s case have emerged, her death has become a powerful reminder of what happens when abortion becomes inaccessible. Though abortion itself is now extraordinarily safe, it’s also become, if anything, harder to get than it was in the 1970s, especially in Texas.

[Solly Mack]

20. Yes! Thank you!