Congress was told by a group of attorney generals on Monday that the Hyde Amendment actually resulted in saving over 2 million unborn babies' lives.
The Christian Headlines said 22 attorney generals-including those from Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia--sent a unified letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nanci Pelosi, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asking them to retain the Hyde Amendment that saved "2.3 million lives" since it was signed four decades ago.
"We were disappointed to find the conspicuous omission of the Hyde Amendment in the budget proposal that President Biden delivered to Congress earlier this month," the letter from the attorneys general began.
"Unborn life might be nothing more than a matter of politics for the administration, but it is something quite different for us: the policy in question is one of life or death. Studies of the Hyde Amendment have found that it has saved the lives of millions of unborn children--saving 2.13 million lives in its first forty years alone, and saving over 60,000 lives per year today," the attorney generals said in the letter.
Sent from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the letter pointed out the importance of the letter and speaks in behalf of those who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortion, stressing that "a great many taxpayers object to abortion on moral or religious grounds."
The letter pointed to religious liberty as one reason to retain the Hyde Amendment, which it protects being "at the root of the Constitution's commitment to individual liberty and limited government."
"If state taxpayers disagree with the services that their tax dollars pay for, they can 'vote with their feet' and move to a state with lower taxes or one that prioritizes spending differently," the attorney generals pointed out.
"But because one cannot move to avoid federal taxes, there would be nowhere for a pro-life, or even a moderately pro-choice, American to go to avoid violating the moral or religious conviction that their hard-earned dollars not be used to fund abortions," they added.
Alabama Representative Robert Aderholt expressed support of Marshall and the fight to save the Hyde Amendment.
"For nearly five decades the Hyde Amendment has garnered strong bipartisan support. Joe Biden was in favor of Hyde for his entire career in the Senate. But now, Hyde is under attack. I stand with @AGSteveMarshall and all who are in the fight to #SaveHyde," Aderholt said in Twitter on Wednesday.
In an interview with Fox News' Fox & Friends First on Wednesday, Marshall explained why he and "twenty-one other attorneys general are adamant that Congress must keep the Hyde Amendment and keep protecting American taxpayers from being forced to fund abortions."
Fox News highlighted that the "crux of the letter" was in pointing out that besides one's "religious conviction" is the reality that one's "hard-earned dollars" shouldn't be used to fund abortions.
The program's host Rob Schmitt quoted the above mentioned text from the attorney generals' letter during Marshall's interview.
"There would be nowhere for a pro-life, or even a moderately pro-choice, American to go to avoid violating the moral or religious conviction that their hard-earned dollars not be used to fund abortions."
Marshall elaborated that the Democrats believe that the Hyde Amendment is a bi-partisan policy but the current situation shows that President Joe Biden's Administration is really moving towards its repeal. He said, in response to the question posed by Schmitt, that the 2022 elections would indeed be a good opportunity to review the performance of the Democrats especially in line with this issue on the Hyde Amendment.
