Second, Jayapal claimed that “none of the dollars” in the reconciliation bill could be spent on elective abortions.
Jayapal is wrong on that second point — more on that in a minute — but it’s worth stopping for a moment and taking what she’s saying at face value. If Jayapal genuinely believed there’s no funding for abortion in the reconciliation bill, then why would she kill it because of an amendment saying none of the funds could be used for elective abortion? Is the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus really threatening to kill $2 trillion in social spending because of an amendment she believes is a redundancy?
Jayapal elaborated on her views during a podcast hosted by former Obama administration officials. “The Hyde amendment is the law,” Jayapal said. “I would like to repeal it, but I’m not suggesting we put the repeal into this [reconciliation] bill. What I am saying is that the Hyde amendment is already law, so why would we add it into the bill as a political statement when it’s already the law?”
Jayapal seems to be arguing that the Hyde amendment is a permanent law that applies to all federal funds. But that is not true.
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