The League signed onto a letter to US Congress urging them to ensure abortion coverage restrictions are not included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget, including the Hyde and Weldon Amendments. The Hyde Amendment is an appropriations rider that prohibits the use of federal funding for most abortions. As a result, most people enrolled in public health programs cannot use their healthcare coverage to pay for abortion services. The Weldon Amendment is also an appropriations rider that threatens the loss of federal funding for federal agencies and programs or state and local governments that require health insurance plans, health care institutions, or health care professionals to cover, provide, or refer for abortions.
July 30, 2025
The Honorable Susan Collins
Chair
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
S-128, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Patty Murray
Vice Chair
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
S-146A, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Tom Cole
Chair
U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
H-307, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
1036 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairs Collins and Cole, Vice Chair Murray, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As organizations committed to ensuring all people can access reproductive health care, including abortion, however much money they make, no matter where they’re from, or whatever their race or gender, we believe that each of us should be able to make decisions about pregnancy and parenting that are best for our families without political interference. However, policymakers have enacted bans on insurance coverage of abortion that push this decision out of reach for many, particularly those working to make ends meet. To this end, we urge you to put forth appropriations legislation for Fiscal Year 2026 that does not include bans or restrictions on insurance coverage for abortion.
Since the first passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, the appropriations process has been used as a vehicle to systematically deny insurance coverage of abortion. Studies show that when policymakers place restrictions on Medicaid coverage of abortion, it forces one in four poor women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.1Additionally, a woman who seeks an abortion, but is denied, is more likely to fall into poverty than one who is able to get an abortion.
Since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization erroneously held that there is no constitutional right to abortion, 19 states have outright banned the procedure or imposed a ban at an arbitrary point in pregnancy. More than 25 million women aged 15-44 live in states where there are more restrictions imposed than prior to the Dobbs decision. This is nearly 1 in 5 women. As of 2024, 35% or 5.5 million women aged 15-49 who are enrolled in Medicaid live in states where abortion is legal but not covered by the program except in Hyde-allowable circumstances.
This is a crucial moment for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, for women, LGBTQI folks, immigrants, and young people. As the Medicaid program faces deep cuts and reproductive health clinics across the country face potential closures due to the recent passage of H.R. 1, these individuals are the most harmed by the Hyde Amendment and other coverage bans. We are fighting for a future in which abortion is affordable, available, and supported for anyone who seeks care — without barriers based on who you are, where you are from, or how much you earn. We are reimagining a world in which each of us makes a living wage and everyone has access to the full-spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion.
We urge you, as leaders of the Appropriations Committees, to draft and pass federal spending bills that end the shameful legacy of the Hyde Amendment and related abortion coverage restrictions. Now is the time to take action for people working to make ends meet and stop the relentless attacks on abortion coverage.
We ask that FY 2026 appropriations legislation be free of abortion coverage restrictions, including those that impact the following populations: (i) Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries; (ii) federal employees and their dependents; (iii) Peace Corps volunteers; (iv) Native American people (iv) women in federal prisons and detention centers, including those detained for immigration purposes; and (v) low-income people in the District of Columbia through the use of local funds. This includes the Weldon Amendment, which has been attached to Hyde and used to threaten states that seek to ensure abortion coverage. Additionally, we urge you to reject any efforts to add new policy riders that seek to undermine access to health care.
Each of us should be able to make decisions about our health and our futures with dignity and have control over our own economic security. Yet these policies have harmed our families, our communities, and our health for far too long. We implore the 119th Congress to lift abortion coverage bans and end the Hyde Amendment.
Sincerely,
See Attached for List of Signatories