Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, Hyde amendment protections need to be added to this bill. Taxpayer funds should not be forced to subsidize…”

“Mr. Speaker, Hyde amendment protections need to be added to this bill. Taxpayer funds should not be forced to subsidize the killing of an unborn child by dismemberment or by baby poison pills. The Hyde amendment was not--I will say it again, was not--included when the ACA was enacted in 2010, nor was it included when President Biden significantly expanded subsidies during COVID. It has gotten so bad, Mr. Speaker, that, according to a 2025 article by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 12 States, including my own State of New Jersey, absolutely require all plans on the ACA marketplace to cover abortion on demand. We permit abortion until birth in my State, as do many others. That is all covered by ObamaCare. The House has passed my bill, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, on four separate occasions beginning in 2011. It is pending again in this Congress, but every time it has gone over to the Senate, it got nowhere, sadly. I remember the day, Mr. Speaker, when my friend and colleague, the author of the amendment, Henry Hyde, first learned that about 1 million children were alive because of his amendment. He was overcome with joy. He had a tear in his eye. I was there when it happened, when he found out that 1 million mothers were spared the agony of post-abortion pain, and 1 million children were alive and well, growing up, going to school, playing sports, dating, marrying, and having kids of their own.”