RH Reality Check: The Helms and Hyde Amendments: More Than 40 Years of Human Rights Violations
Jamila Taylor, a senior policy adviser at Ipas, and Yamani Hernandez, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, discuss the Helms and Hyde amendments, which restrict U.S. funding for abortion in certain circumstances. They write, “…Millions of people, in the United States and around the world, receive funding from U.S. programs that improve maternal health conditions. Yet, the Helms and Hyde amendments undermine this important work, harming women, particularly low-income women and women of color, in the United States and in the Global South. … Ultimately, in order for people around the world to realize full equality and reproductive freedom as our own human rights principles set out to do, these funding restrictions must be repealed…” (12/17).