What does U.S. Representative Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) think of the Hyde Amendment?
For years, that was unclear.
Lynch, who was anti-abortion when first elected to Congress in 2001, hadn’t taken a position on the issue in years. He didn’t take a position on it in his 2020 re-election bid and a campaign spokesman told Boston.com that he didn’t know what Lynch thought on the matter.
However, Scott Ferson, who serves as a campaign spokesman for Lynch, told NewBostonPost how the Congressman sees the issue in 2021.
Ferson wrote in an email message, “He doesn’t think it will be included in the approps bill and he’s not opposed to that.”
In other words, Lynch is O.K. with repealing the Hyde Amendment. It prevents an estimated 50,000 abortions per year, according to National Review.
Massachusetts Citizens for Life expressed disappointment in the revelation.
“Eliminating the decades-long Hyde Amendment will ensure the killing of millions more unborn children and force taxpayers, who deem abortion reprehensible, to pay for it,” executive director Patricia Stewart told NewBostonPost in an email message. “Clearly, liberals’ appetite for death and destruction knows no bounds.”
Democrats for Life of America of America executive director Kristen Day was also disappointed with the news and urged Lynch to reconsider.
“Congressman Lynch is turning his back on poor women — particularly minority women — who are already overrepresented in abortion numbers,” Day told NewBostonPost in an email message. “His message is abortion is the preferred solution to an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. We strongly urge the Congressman to protect the Hyde Amendment and instead support measures to provide women with real choice.”
The Hyde Amendment allows federal funds to go to abortion only in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.
The Hyde Amendment primarily affects Medicaid recipients. However, the National Health Law Program lays out other instances where it applies:
People who are enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP;
Indigenous people who receive their health care from IHS;
Refugees who receive medical assistance through federal programs for domestic resettlement and assistance to refugees;
People detained in federal prisons or detention centers, such as immigration detention;
Young people in the care or custody of the United States’ Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement;
People who are enrolled in government-sponsored health insurance programs or plans due to a current or former employer relationship, including federal employees and their dependents, Peace Corps volunteers; military members, veterans, and their dependents
The $6 trillion federal budget that President Joe Biden proposed on Friday, May 28, does not include the Hyde Amendment. Like Lynch, Biden once supported some restrictions on abortion, including the Hyde Amendment.
Lynch voted in favor of abortion restrictions as recently as 2012 when he voted in favor of a ban on sex-selective abortion. Notably, in 2003, he voted in favor of banning partial-birth abortion, and in 2009, he supported the Stupak Amendment to the Affordable Care Act. Except for in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother, the proposed amendment would have prohibited “any coverage of abortion in the public option and prohibits anyone receiving a federal subsidy from purchasing a health insurance plan that includes abortion,” according to the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.
When running for Congress in 2001, Lynch explicitly told The Boston Globe that he was pro-life and that it was an important issue to him.
“Unlike some people, I’m not sure precisely when life begins, or whether a fetus is a legal person,” he said. “But I believe strongly that this is at least the potential of human life and that it is the most special and precious gift and must be protected.”
However, Lynch started opposing restrictions on abortion in 2013 — the year he ran for U.S. Senate.
That year, he said in a Democratic primary debate at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell with now-Senator Ed Markey that he supports Roe v. Wade.
“Overturning Roe v. Wade doesn’t end abortion,” Lynch said. “What it will do, however, is change the options for women from a clinical setting to one that is much more dangerous for women in crisis.”
Lynch also expressed opposition to abortion restrictions passed in states like Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and Ohio in an opinion piece for The Boston Globe in 2019. In it, he even said that, “Simply opposing abortion does not make you pro-life.”
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