Dems Decry Pelosi’s Pledge to Repeal Hyde Amendment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) pledged to do away with the longstanding ban on taxpayer funding of abortion, sparking pushback from Democratic and pro-life activist groups.

Pelosi told a group of Democratic lawmakers that House leadership will no longer include the five-decade-old Hyde Amendment in government funding bills in 2021, according to the Los Angeles Times. Democratic nominee Joe Biden also changed his position on the amendment at the beginning of his presidential run after repeatedly voting for it in the Senate. The sharp tack to the left alarmed some within the party.

Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.), a pro-life Democrat who lost his primary to a far-left challenger in March, told the Washington Free Beacon he had not heard from Pelosi about the plan, but that special interest pro-abortion groups were pushing the party to extremes on the issue.

"There were many Democrats who pushed for an end to the Hyde Amendment in the appropriations bills passed by the House this year, but it was not done," Lipinski said. "Presumably it was not done because the Hyde Amendment is still supported by a clear majority of Americans."