October 03, 2016 11:05 AM UTC

After 40 years, “Being Bold, Ending Hyde” is only the first step

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• by: ProChoiceCO

(Cross-posted from the NARAL Colorado blog.)

Gena Ozols, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Political Director

Across the US, national groups dedicated to reproductive freedom are supporting actions to repeal the Hyde Amendment. Passed roughly 40 years ago, Hyde is a federal law passed in an attempt at “compromise” between pro-choice and anti-choice supporters. As political compromises, especially around abortion tend to do, it primarily affected low income women and people of color. Hyde outlawed the use of public funds to be used to cover abortion services, and continued the trend of leaving affluent women unaffected in their access to care, while doing the most damage to women most in need of these services. This is at the core of our fight for reproductive justice – all women should have access to abortion care, regardless of income.

Hyde has always been a major roadblock to expanding reproductive care, especially for women of color. The first woman to die from an illegal abortion after Hyde blocked her access to care was Latina – Rosie Jimenez in Texas. It should go without saying that it is a top priority of the reproductive rights community to overturn it. But it is also important to remember that repealing Hyde is only step 1 in the fight for expanded access. Anti-choice groups, seeing an opportunity, pounced on the language of Hyde and organized in states around the country, passing public funding bans similar in language and identical in intent to Hyde in 32 states. It was an incredibly strategic move that has tied the hands of these states for years, each one having a different process for overturning it.

In Colorado, our version of Hyde was passed in 1984 and is ingrained in our state constitution. According to our laws, the repeal of this amendment can only happen by a popular vote requiring an incredibly well funded campaign and an uphill battle that could last several years, or by a 60% majority vote in both chambers of the legislature. For all of our tireless efforts, Colorado won’t have a 60% pro-choice majority in both chambers anytime in the next two years, even if our allies win elections in every seat currently up for grabs, the math just doesn’t work.

We at NARAL know that affordability IS access, and Hyde and state bans made in its image, aim to make abortion care un-affordable, and therefore succeed in making it inaccessible. But it’s not alone. Anti-choice legislators and the groups that back them are still too strong, and public opinion still too swayed by misinformation and unjust stigma surrounding abortion care. Colorado has been a leader in access to contraception and abortion services for decades, having been the first state to legalize it under Governor Love in the 70’s. We must continue on this path forward and that a repeal of Hyde at the federal level will open up a conversation to bring this progressive line of thinking to each individual state currently strangled by these funding bans.