U.S. readers: Email your lawmakers – we must protect the Hyde Amendment!
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump triggered a massive pushback from pro-life Americans when he advised a meeting of Republican lawmakers to be “flexible” on longstanding Hyde Amendment protections for the pre-born.
Speaking to GOP members of congress at the Kennedy Center just two weeks before the annual National March for Life in D.C., the president said that flexibility is needed as Republicans attempt to pass healthcare legislation.
Pro-life leaders were quick to react with thundering criticism.
“The GOP must stand firm for human life,” declared LiveAction Founder Lila Rose. “No exceptions. No inch given.”
“If you sacrifice Hyde, you sacrifice innocent human children,” added Rose.
BREAKING: Trump calls to make the Hyde Amendment “flexible,” potentially opening the door to taxpayer-funded abortion.
The GOP must stand firm for human life.⁰
No exceptions. No inch given.If you sacrifice Hyde, you sacrifice innocent human children. pic.twitter.com/2oI4fJk0o0
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) January 6, 2026
“On its face, Trump’s request is absurd,” Rescue Resurrection founder Randall Terry told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive interview. “It’s like asking runaway slaves to compromise with their tyrannical slave masters.”
“The pro-life movement’s first obligation is to the babies and their mothers, not to the Republican Party,” said Terry.
“This is where we’re going to be tested,” predicted the pro-life icon. “I’ve been very concerned about pro-life groups wanting their pictures taken with the president more than they want to show pictures of the victims of this genocide.”
“If you’re surprised by this, you haven’t been paying attention,” wrote Alexandra DeSanctis Marr, National Review Online contributor on X.
“Trump sold the pro-life movement out during the 2024 campaign and got its support anyway – this is just the latest evidence that he meant it,” she added.
“For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party,” noted SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement. “To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment. If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November.”
“The voters sent a GOP trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like one. Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a massive betrayal,” said Dannenfelser.
“15 members of Congress who lost in 2010 can tell you Hyde is non-negotiable,” added Dannenfelser on X.
“We will not compromise on Hyde,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, responding to the president’s infelicitous remarks.
“Abortion and gender experimentation are not health care,” said Perkins. “The only flexibility needed is for the government to allow taxpayers to get out of the abortion and gender mutilation business.”
“It is unjust to force tax payers to pay for abortion,” wrote Ryan T. Anderson, president of Washington D.C.’s Ethics and Public Policy Center. “It is also politically unpopular. Congressional Republicans should hold the line on Hyde.”
It is unjust to force tax payers to pay for abortion. It is also politically unpopular. Congressional Republicans should hold the line on Hyde. https://t.co/bhrrEHnT7t pic.twitter.com/fLPV7a0FzA
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) January 6, 2026
The federal Hyde Amendment, which prohibits government funding of abortions, is estimated to have saved more than 2.5 million lives since its adoption in 1976, according to the data reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute late last year.
“For decades, the Hyde Amendment has traditionally been included every year in federal budgets with little objection. It forbids most taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortions except for cases of rape, incest, or threat to a mother’s life,” explained LifeSiteNews’ Calvin Freiburger, a staunch, life-long pro-life advocate. “Despite its largely bipartisan acceptance, former President Joe Biden proposed removing it in the budgets he submitted to Congress and worked throughout his presidency to distribute funds to entities involved in abortion.”
“Since it was first passed in 1976, the Hyde Amendment has had a great track record of protecting the conscience rights of taxpayers and protecting unborn babies,” said Lozier senior associate scholar Michael New, who authored the report. “Forty-nine years later, we are still seeing the fruits of the Hyde Amendment as tens of thousands of unborn lives are saved. As we work to end the scourge of abortion, the Hyde Amendment has remained an important safeguard protecting the dignity of unborn babies and the conscience rights of Americans who don’t want their tax dollars funding abortion.”
In poignant comments offered on X, abortion abolitionist Ben Zeisloft responded to the president:
America is a mighty nation. We have the largest and most innovative economy in the world. We have an unprecedented civilizational heritage. We have a military that, as we saw only days ago, can take out our greatest adversaries in a matter of minutes.
But none of this matters as long as we continue murdering babies under cover of law and with the blessing of our governing authorities. Democrats and Republicans alike are content to keep the murder of preborn babies alive and well.
God judges nations that commit child sacrifice. The very same God who has so richly blessed this nation would be more than just to destroy us for the amount of innocent blood that we continue to shed.
That is why Christians in this nation must demand and work such that every level of our government, from our state legislatures to the President of the United States, abolishes abortion and establishes equal protection of the laws for preborn image-bearers of God.
If we do not bow the knee to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, especially by turning from our abominable child sacrifice, we can only expect our nation to crumble and falter.