[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3917]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUPPORT HYDE AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Tenney) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, in 1994, a senior U.S. Senator was asked by 
a constituent how he felt about taxpayer-funded abortion. The Senator 
responded, ``I will continue to abide by the same principle that has 
guided me throughout my 21 years in the Senate: Those of us who are 
opposed to abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.''
  That Senator is now the President of the United States. Yes, those 
were the words of President Joe Biden on April 7, 1994.
  Only 2 years ago, in 2019, then-candidate Biden reaffirmed his 
support of the Hyde amendment. A campaign statement reiterated that 
``his position on the Hyde amendment has been consistent.''
  Since 1976, Congress' position on the Hyde amendment has also been 
consistent. The bipartisan Hyde amendment has prevented taxpayer 
funding for abortion.
  But, for the first time in decades, House Democrats have stripped 
this provision from the Federal spending bills we are considering this 
week. Years of bipartisan consensus have been thrown out the door.
  The Hyde amendment is a commonsense provision that most Americans 
support. In a recent poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans expressed 
their support for the Hyde amendment, while only 38 percent voiced 
support for taxpayer-funded abortions.
  But this issue is not about the polling or the politics; it is about 
life. It is estimated that the Hyde amendment has saved more than 2.4 
million lives. For over 40 years, these very precious lives have been 
respected, valued, and saved because of this bipartisan provision.
  The survival of millions more precious lives is at stake. That is why 
I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reconsider 
their decision to strip the Hyde amendment from the spending bills we 
are considering this week. As a society, we must value the unborn and 
protect the sanctity of life.
  Congressman Henry Hyde fought to ban taxpayer-funded abortions, he 
said, because he believed firmly in the sanctity of life. As he said, 
the ``little, almost-born infant struggling to live is a member of the 
human family,'' and ``abortion is a lethal assault against the very 
idea of human rights and destroys, along with a defenseless little 
baby, the moral foundation of our democracy.''

  The late Congressman Hyde was right. This is a moral question. That 
is why I agree with President Biden's statement when he was in the 
Senate many years ago: Those who disagree with abortion should not now 
be forced to pay for it.
  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together, 
just as we have for nearly five decades, to support the Hyde amendment 
and stand up and defend life.

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