Orrin Hatch: “30 years ago today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its landmark decision in Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S.…”

“30 years ago today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its landmark decision in Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297, upholding the constitutionality of the Hyde amendment, which prohibits Federal funding of abortions under the Medicaid Program. That decision made it possible for Congress, by annual enactment of the Hyde amendment, to protect American taxpayers from being forced to fund the destruction of innocent preborn human beings. The majority opinion, written by Justice Potter Stewart, established three important principles. First, no matter what unwritten right to abortion may be said to exist in our written Constitution, "it simply does not follow that a woman's freedom of choice carries with it a constitutional entitlement to the financial resources to avail herself of the full range of protected choices." Second, the Court accepted in full the argument of Solicitor General Wade McCree that the Hyde amendment is rationally related to the interest we all have in preserving nascent human life and encouraging childbirth. Finally, the Court rejected the spurious claims of the Hyde amendment's opponents that the amendment violated the establishment clause of the first amendment because it somehow incorporated into federal law the religious doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.”