Since 1977, the so-called "Hyde Amendment" has prohibited federal Medicaid funds from paying for most abortions for low-income women. In its current form, the Hyde Amendment bans federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment.

Virginia prohibits public funding for abortion for women eligible for state medical assistance for general health care unless:  

(1) the physician certifies that the woman's life or health would be substantially endangered if the fetus were carried to term, after taking into consideration all physical, emotional, psychological, familial factors, including the woman's age, relevant to the well-being of the woman;

(2) the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest that has been reported to a law enforcement or public health agency; or

(3) a physician certifies that the fetus will be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.  

Even these limited exceptions have come under attack by Virginia's anti-choice legislators in recent years.

Why We Oppose Banning Public Funding of Abortion:

Banning abortion funding imposes a particular religious or moral viewpoint on those women who rely on government-funded health care. The government should not use its dollars to intrude on a poor woman's decision whether to carry to term or to terminate her pregnancy by selectively withholding benefits because she seeks to exercise her right of reproductive choice in a manner the government disfavors.

Abortion funding bans are discriminatory. If a woman chooses to carry her pregnancy to term, Medicaid pays for the necessary medical care. But if the same woman needs to end her pregnancy, Virginia will not provide coverage for her abortion, even if continuing the pregnancy will harm her health. Not including all reproductive health services in an otherwise comprehensive funding program that includes costs related to childbirth is not a neutral stance--it forces women to make one choice by forclosing the possibility of making another.

Abortion funding bans harm women's health. Many Medicaid-eligible women delay their abortions, increasing their medical risks, while they scrape funds together. Other women have been forced to carry their unintended or health-threatening pregnancies to term or to seek illegal abortions. Studies have shown that 18 to 35 percent of Medicaid-eligible women who want abortions, but who live in states that do not provide funding for abortions, have been forced to carry their pregnancies to term.

Providing funding for abortion does not encourage or compel women to have abortions, but denying funding compels many women to carry their pregnancies to term. Nondiscriminatory funding would simply place the profoundly personal decision about how to treat a pregnancy back where it belongs -- in the hands of the woman who must live with the consequences of that decision.