The Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in June is a huge step forward for our movement. But, even with this favorable ruling, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said, “Reproductive freedom is in a sorry situation in the United States. Poor women do not have choice.” We must now battle one of the most significant barriers to abortion care — the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment is language that gets added yearly to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations legislation that bars programs in these agencies from covering abortion. Since the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, Congress has withheld coverage for abortion services from those insured through the Medicaid program. This Amendment creates an often insurmountable barrier to abortion for people across the country struggling to access affordable health care. It also disproportionately affects those who are low-income, people of color, young, immigrants, or live in rural communities. The Hyde Amendment is NOT permanent law and Congress has the opportunity to lift this ban on abortion coverage each year.

This September will mark 40 years of Hyde.  We believe that it is high time we ended Hyde because abortion care is basic health care that everyone should have access to!

In an effort to help repeal the Hyde Amendment and increase access to reproductive health care for everyone, the Reproductive Health Access Project has joined a coalition called All* Above All. All* Above All unites organizations and individuals to build support for lifting bans that deny abortion coverage so that everyone, at every income level, can get affordable, safe abortion care when they need it. Learn more about how you can become involved in the fight to repeal Hyde at allaboveall.org/act!

*Since this September does mark 40 years of Hyde, we will be talking more about the Hyde Amendment and how you can help repeal it in the coming weeks so stay tuned!