The Long History Behind The Abortion Measure That Caused The Latest Round Of Political Gridlock
March 17, 2015
“Over the past several years, as Republicans swept state legislatures and enacted a record-breaking number of new abortion restrictions, the impact of Hyde has come into even sharper focus. According to the members of All Above All, a grassroots coalition of reproductive justice groups working to build support for repealing the Hyde Amendment, the recent legislative push has created a “perfect storm” that illustrates exactly how unaffordable abortion services can be. People are getting angry. Activists working in this space say that young Americans in particular are starting to think about Hyde-style restrictions in the context of economic and racial justice.
“I think, often, Americans don’t know how far-reaching this policy goes,” Kierra Johnson, the executive director for URGE, one of the national groups involved with All Above All, told ThinkProgress last fall. “What is so exciting about this activism that we’ve started to see over the last few years is that people are angry and frustrated… And it’s already begun to translate into political change.”
