Anti-abortion advocates pushed back against President Donald Trump’s guidance to Republicans on Tuesday to be “flexible” about including Hyde Amendment restrictions on elective abortion funding in upcoming Affordable Care Act reforms.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said that Republicans “giving in to Democrat demands” to fund abortion coverage through Obamacare would be “a massive betrayal.”
SBA and other anti-abortion groups have pushed Republicans in the House and Senate over recent months to ensure that any legislation to extend enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies that expired at the end of 2025 must include Hyde Amendment language, prohibiting new Obamacare spending from covering elective abortions.
Dannenfelser said that Hyde Amendment protections, which have been included in all appropriations bills since the 1970s, have been “an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party” for decades.
But Trump told a group of GOP lawmakers during a nearly 75-minute address at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday that they ought to be “a little flexible on Hyde.”
“You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work,” said the president. “We’re all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility.”
Trump told Republican lawmakers that healthcare ought to be a winning issue for the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections. He said making some sort of deal on healthcare to lower costs is vital.
Subsidized Obamacare insurance plans are supposed to collect a separate surcharge from enrollees if their plan covers abortion services, but anti-abortion advocates have argued that this does not occur in practice.
The enhanced premium subsidies that expired at the end of 2025 proved to be the first opportunity for Republicans to control the direction of Obamacare reform, making including tighter restrictions on abortion a central issue.
The fight over Hyde language frustrated attempts at compromise between the parties before the end of 2025, pushing any hopes of reform legislation into 2026.
But anti-abortion groups say that including Hyde protections will be an essential signal for anti-abortion voters heading into this year’s midterm elections.
“To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment. If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November,” said Dannefelser.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said similarly on X that anti-abortion politicians cannot support any Obamacare reform that does not contain Hyde language.
“Hyde must be included in any Obamacare reform bill or it will be a pro-abortion vote,” Hawkins said.
SBA and other anti-abortion organizations that engage in grassroots campaigning have already said that they will use Hyde language in Obamacare and other health policy legislation as a benchmark for endorsements for the 2026 midterm elections.
Americans United for Life CEO John Mize also referenced the upcoming election, saying that abandoning Hyde would leave the GOP “fractured and without a base strong enough to win important battles for life in coming years.”
Other anti-abortion leaders stressed the importance of Hyde protections beyond 2026 electoral implications.
Lila Rose, head of the anti-abortion group Live Action, posted on X that “the GOP must stand firm for human life.”
“No exceptions. No inch given. If you sacrifice Hyde, you sacrifice innocent human children,” Rose said.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists posted on X that “Induced abortion is not healthcare, and Hyde ensures Americans aren’t forced to fund it, especially when millions oppose doing so.”
A Knights of Columbus and Marist Poll from January 2025 found that 57% of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to pay for elective abortions.
Reporters Christian Datoc and Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
