Clinton says ‘we should do everything we can to repeal’ ban on federal funding of abortion

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/01/13/clinton-says-we-should-do-everything-we-can-to-repeal-ban-on-federal-funding-of-abortion/

(CNSNews.com) — Hillary Clinton, endorsed by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL, said on Monday she supports repeal of the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortion in most cases.

It was the second time in two days that she’s called for its repeal.

“It is just hard to justify, because if we have a right — and I think people have a right to health. We’re working on trying to make that real in people’s lives. But certainly, the full range of reproductive health rights that people should have includes access to safe and legal abortion,” Clinton told Fusion TV on Monday.

“But if state governments, if politicicans use their power to try to restrict that right, well-off people area still going to have that. We know that. But a lot of poorer women, rural women — isolated, far from a place where they can get services, are going to be denied.”

Clinton criticized the Texas government for trying to force the closure of Planned Parenthood clinics “on totally inaccurate medical requirements.”

“So, yeah, I think we should do everything we can to repeal the Hyde Amendment. I think it’s been a blockade.”

(The Supreme Court in November agreed to decide the constitutionality of a 2013 Texas law requiring doctors who perform abortions in Texas to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic; and the law says each clinic must have the same facilities as a surgical center.)

Clinton first called for repeal of the Hyde Amendment on Sunday, Jan. 8, as she accepted Planned Parenthood’s endorsement at a rally in New Hampshire.

“Any right that requires you to take extraordinary measures to access it is no right at all,” she said on Sunday.

“Not when patients and providers have to endure harassment and intimidation just to walk into a health center…Not when providers are required by state law to recite misleading information to women to shame and scare them. And not as long as we have laws on the book like the Hyde Amendment making it harder for low-income women to exercise their full rights.”

Clinton isn’t the first Democrat to demand repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) described the amendment as part of the “war on women” this past July.

She complained in an op-ed that the amendment prevents women with government-funded health insurance from receiving abortions.

— Written by Susan Jones