Family Council Joins Letter Urging Congress, President to Stand By the Hyde Amendment

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On Friday, Family Council joined more than 70 other pro-life leaders and organizations in a letter urging President Trump and leaders in Congress to preserve the Hyde Amendment when it comes to Obamacare subsidies.

As we wrote nearly 10 years ago, the Hyde Amendment is a longstanding, bipartisan compromise that generally prevents federal money from paying for abortions. Experts estimate the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million unborn children. However, that lifesaving compromise has recently come under attack.

Last week, amid calls from President Trump for Republicans to be “a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a three-year extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies without Hyde’s protections preventing publicly funded abortion.

In response, Americans United for Life’s Government Affairs Director, Brad Kehr, called the decision “the largest ever expansion of taxpayer funding for abortion.”

National Right to Life issued a statement, saying, “No federal dollar should ever pay for abortion. Not one. House members who walked away from that principle betrayed the children we fight for and the voters who trusted them. The Senate must stop this bill.”

In response, a coalition of pro-life organizations and leaders — including Family Council — sent a letter to President Trump, Vice President Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune urging them to stop public tax dollars from paying for abortions under Obamacare.

The letter says in part:

The Hyde Amendment is at the core of protecting and supporting life. It has saved 2.64 million lives since its bipartisan enactment in 1976. Even today, a nearly 60% majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars to pay for abortion or abortion coverage. Hyde policies are applied extensively to federal programs and have been over the last nearly fifty years.

Please stand with all Americans who do not want to be forced to pay for abortions. Americans elected a Republican trifecta in 2024, and Congress should not now scorn their widespread support by forcing Americans to fund abortion through a “flexibility” on Hyde.

Pro-abortion groups have often said, “If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one.” But without the Hyde Amendment, even if you don’t like abortion and don’t have an abortion, you could still be forced to pay for an abortion with your taxes. We must stand up for the Hyde Amendment.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Data Shows 851 Women from Arkansas Had Abortions in Kansas in 2024

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Above: Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility in Southeast Kansas is just 90 minutes from Northwest Arkansas.

New data shows 851 women from Arkansas had abortions in Kansas during 2024.

Since the reversal of Roe, Arkansas’ pro-life laws generally have protected women and unborn children from abortion except when the mother’s life is at risk. Last year Arkansas’ legislators voted overwhelmingly to clarify and strengthen its pro-life laws.

However, abortion facilities in other states encourage women to travel across state lines for abortion.

Last month the Kansas Department of Health released its annual abortion statistics. The report shows that abortions in the Sunflower State increased slightly from 19,467 in 2023 to 19,811 in 2024. More than 3/4 of those abortions were on women from out-of-state.

The data reveals abortionists in Kansas performed 851 abortions on women from Arkansas.

Some 3,141 women from Oklahoma and 3,760 from Missouri had abortions in Kansas in 2024. Kansas performed a staggering 6,736 abortions on women from Texas.

Women and families deserve better than abortion. It’s important to prohibit abortion through legislation, but we need to eliminate the demand for abortion as well. If pro-lifers can do that, perhaps people will no longer travel across state lines for abortion.

You can read the abortion reports from the State of Kansas here.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Researchers Say People With Eating Disorders are Dying from Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, , , ,

A recent column in The Wall Street Journal highlights how people with eating disorders are dying from assisted suicide in states and countries where the practice is legal.

Alexander Raikin with the Ethics and Public Policy Center writes:

We have Oregon’s 2021 annual report on assisted suicide and correspondence with Colorado’s Vital Statistics Program, published in a 2024 peer-reviewed article by Chelsea Roff, which confirm that anorexia has been reported as the primary qualifying illness for assisted suicide. We also have a case study by Jennifer Gaudiani—an eating-disorder specialist and assisted suicide clinician in Colorado—on two of her patients with eating disorders who were prescribed assisted suicide.

The 2024 peer-reviewed article he cited found, “Assisted dying for reasons solely related to an eating disorder (ED) has occurred in multiple countries, including those which restrict the practice to individuals with a terminal condition.”

Researchers also identified at least 60 patients with eating disorders who underwent assisted suicide between 2012 and 2024. Although these people were supposed to have illnesses that were terminal, incurable, or untreatable, researchers said gaps in the data on assisted suicide raised “substantial concerns about oversight and public safety” and that in many cases the reasons for justifying assisted suicide were invalid.

Experience has shown that assisted suicide doesn’t help people who are sick and dying.

In parts of the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is legal, insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted suicide drugs.

Patients in Europe and Canada reportedly have been denied care or actively euthanized as a result of assisted suicide laws.

Stories like these are part of the reason why Family Council has strongly opposed assisted suicide legislation in Arkansas.

Being pro-life means believing innocent human life is sacred from conception until natural death.

Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide violate the sanctity of innocent human life.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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