Last week, Florida’s two U.S. senators–Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott–joined almost all of their GOP colleagues in the Senate in sending a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, pledging to oppose any funding bill that would undermine the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions, or any other pro-life protections.
The letter is below.
Dear Leader Schumer:
We write to express our unwavering support for the Hyde Amendment and all other longstanding pro-life protections. For more than 45 years, the Hyde Amendment has ensured that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund abortions, saving the lives of nearly 2.5 million preborn children. As you know, the Hyde Amendment is supported by both a substantial majority of the American public and a bipartisan majority of sitting United States Senators, and was most recently signed into law by President Biden in Public Law 117-103.
Nevertheless, President Biden‘s budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 once again proposes to eliminate the Hyde Amendment and other existing pro-life protections, while also increasing taxpayer funding for the abortion industry at home and abroad, including through massive funding increases for the Title X family planning program.
On February 5, 2021, we wrote to you that “[w]e are committed to vote against the advancement of any legislation that would eliminate or weaken the Hyde Amendment or any other current-law pro-life protections, or otherwise undermine existing Federal pro-life policy.” We firmly renew this commitment for FY 2023.
We are united in our resolve to preserve more than 45 years of consensus against taxpayer funding for abortion. We urge you to start where we finished by making a baseline commitment to maintain the same pro-life protections that were included in Public Law 117-103, and to eschew any taxpayer-funded giveaways that benefit the multi-billion-dollar abortion industry. The American people, born and preborn, deserve nothing less.
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