(Oregon Right to Life) — Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson responded Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump rattled pro-life advocates by suggesting that Republican lawmakers must be “flexible” about the Hyde Amendment, a rule that prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. Johnson reaffirmed that lawmakers would not alter the rule.
Trump made the remarks Tuesday at the Trump-Kennedy Performing Arts Center, where Republican congressmen were assembled for a House GOP Member Retreat, the Daily Wire reported.
“You have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that. You’ve got to be a little flexible,” the president told lawmakers, speaking in reference to negotiations about health care spending. “You’ve got to use ingenuity. You’ve got to work.”
On Wednesday, an NBC correspondent asked Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to weigh in on the comments.
“We are not gonna change the standard that we’re not gonna use taxpayer funding for abortion,” Johnson reportedly said. “I’m just not gonna allow that to happen.”
Live Action founder and president Lila Rose thanked Johnson for his response in a social media post, underscoring that “[t]axpayer dollars should NEVER be used to end the lives of children through abortion.”
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Rep. Johnson’s response came after Trump’s remark prompted pushback from prominent leaders in the pro-life space, who have continuously urged Republican lawmakers to reject any moves within federal spending and health care legislation that would not threaten Hyde Amendment protections.
“For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party. To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November.”
“President Trump and congressional Republicans must follow through, not abandon, this commitment,” she added.
National Right to Life (NRLC) also released a statement Tuesday. The group did not directly address Trump’s comments, but urged members of Congress to “stand firm in defense of the Hyde Amendment and to ensure that Hyde-like protections are included in all federal spending and health care legislation.”
“These longstanding safeguards prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions and reflect the deeply held convictions of the American people,” NRLC said.
“For nearly five decades, the Hyde Amendment has served as a moral and legal firewall, protecting Americans from being forced to subsidize abortion through their tax dollars,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in the statement. “Its principles must not be weakened, sidelined, or quietly erased through back-door funding schemes.”
“Hyde is not extreme,” Tobias said. “What is extreme is forcing Americans to bankroll the taking of innocent human life. Congress must choose conscience, consensus, and compassion—and reaffirm that taxpayer dollars should never be used to pay for abortion.”
The response from NRLC and SBA come after pro-life leaders have spent months encouraging Republicans to maintain Hyde safeguards amid discussions concerning federal funding and health care.
Last year, during the federal government shutdown, Oregon Right to Life and over a hundred other pro-life organizations signed onto a joint letter, led by SBA, encouraging Republicans to continue resisting Democrat efforts to federally fund abortion via subsidies through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
“Obamacare forces taxpayers to subsidize insurance plans that pay for abortion on demand,” Dannenfelser said in a statement at the time. “And under the guise of COVID relief, President Biden took it even further, massively expanding those subsidies and the flow of taxpayer dollars to abortion.”
As Dannenfelser pointed out, healthcare plans that qualify for subsidies under Obamacare currently include those that cover abortions – even though the 1977 Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars to finance abortion.
“Extending these subsidies without the Hyde Amendment is a vote to expand abortion on demand, and every such vote will be scored by SBA Pro-Life America,” Kelsey Pritchard, a policy expert for SBA Pro-Life America, previously told The Washington Examiner. “This pro-life Congress must not extend the Obama-Biden legacy of taxpayer-funded abortion that ends the lives of countless innocent babies.”
Lawmakers have not voted to extend the Obamacare enhanced premium subsidies, which have now expired as of January 1. Lawmakers could still vote to extend them by another three years, which Democrats have indicated they want to do, but most Republicans have indicated they will not vote to extend the subsidies.
Trump’s recent comments concerning the Hyde Amendment come after the president has made a number of significant moves favorable to the pro-life movement and the protection of preborn human life during his first year back in office. In July, Trump signed a budget reconciliation bill slashing federal dollars to Planned Parenthood for a year. Late last year, Trump’s HHS reportedly began looking into ending a Biden administration regulation permitting the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions for unaccompanied minors who cross the U.S. border.
Additionally, the Trump administration’s HHS and FDA have affirmed they are reviewing the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone following a report indicating that its severe adverse event risk was far higher than previously reported – though delays in that review’s progress have triggered concerns among pro-life advocates. A national poll published in November found that a vast majority of respondents across the political spectrum are in favor of restoring the regulations on the dangerous abortion pill mifepristone that were eliminated during the Biden administration.
