Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this is an updated version of the Hyde amendment which has been in the law since 1976. Essentially, the Hyde amendment denies the use of Federal funds to pay for Medicaid abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term and except in cases of rape and incest. We have found over the years that the Hyde amendment, which as I say has been the law since 1976 in one version or the other, needs to be updated because of the prevalence of health maintenance organizations. Now we find about 40 percent of the Medicaid patients are being served by health maintenance organizations, and the concern has been expressed that under the vaguely worded plans of those HMOs, abortions could end up being paid for with Federal funds. So we have clarified the intent and applied it to managed care situations so that no Federal funds can be expended for abortions, whether it is fee-for-service or under a managed care plan. I want to make clear this does not broaden the Hyde amendment.”