WASHINGTON (OSV News) ─ After President Donald Trump told House Republicans to be "flexible" on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies, a key national pro-life group argued the policy should be "a minimum standard in the Republican Party."
During a speech to the House GOP conference at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the president suggested to members of his party that addressing rising health care costs could give them an edge over Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, telling them, "Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde."
"You know that. You got to be a little flexible," he said. "You got to work something. You got to use ingenuity."
Trump's comments at the Kennedy Center -- which is embroiled in a controversy over an attempt to add the sitting president's name to the memorial for the nation's slain first Catholic president ─ came as lawmakers negotiate a potential deal on renewing enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama's health care law also known as "Obamacare." The enhanced subsidies, or tax credits, expired at the end of 2025 and were used by lower-to-middle-income households to reduce their out-of-pocket costs for enrolling in the program.
Health policy researcher KFF found approximately 24.3 million Americans access health care through the ACA marketplace, and almost 22.4 million Americans receive subsidies in the form of advanced premium tax credits. A KFF analysis showed ACA marketplace premiums are expected to spike an average of 114% in 2026. A family of four with a household income of $40,000 is expected to pay $840 more annually, while a family of four with a household income of $110,000 is expected to pay more than $3,200.
Pew Research data released in 2025 found 36% of Catholic households make under $50,000, including 18% making under $30,000, a figure below the federal poverty line for a family of four.
Teaching set out by the U.S. Catholic bishops in their 1993 "Framework for Comprehensive Healthcare Reform" declared that "every person has a right to adequate health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons who are made in the image and likeness of God." The Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, with the U.S. bishops both opposing direct abortion and calling for strengthened support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.
Many Republicans have indicated they support including the Hyde Amendment in any such deal, a sticking point in negotiations. Since the Hyde Amendment, which was named for the late Republican congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, is not permanent law, it must be attached to individual appropriations bills in order to take effect.
But Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect pro-life candidates to public office, said in a statement, "For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party.
"To suggest Republicans should be 'flexible' is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment," she said. "If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November."
Dannenfelser argued that since voters elected Republican majorities in 2024, "Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a massive betrayal."
Among the batch of executive orders Trump signed upon returning to office in January 2025 was one directing further enforcement of the Hyde Amendment.
Dannenfelser argued that Trump has "consistently supported the Hyde Amendment."
"He pledged repeatedly to make it permanent law, including in health care coverage, and one of his first actions upon taking office last year was prioritizing the reversal of President Biden's Hyde violations," she said, citing that executive order.
"President Trump and congressional Republicans must follow through, not abandon, this commitment," Dannenfelser said.
Other pro-life groups issued similar comments.
John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life, said in a statement, "As we approach the 50th Anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, we cannot abandon the most popular pro-life provision of all time."
"With the most recent polling showing nearly 6 in 10 Americans supporting Hyde, to compromise on the issue now would not be the win President Trump predicts it will be," Mize said, referring to a Marist poll released in January last year. "Instead, it will leave the Republican Party in pieces, fractured and without a base strong enough to win important battles for life in coming years."
Trump's remarks on abortion policy speech are the latest in a string of recent controversial statements that have sparked grave concerns either at home or abroad. Following his administration's recent strike to remove deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, Trump declared the U.S. needed Greenland for national security -- the semiautonomous territory is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally -- with multiple White House officials indicating Jan. 6 that using the military to accomplish the goal was not off the table. The statements have caused alarm in Copenhagen and other European capitals, and consternation even among the president's Republican allies who supported the Venezuelan mission as a military attack would end the transatlantic alliance.
Trump's comments also came on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building, when 2,000 supporters of Trump attempted to block Congress' certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
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Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
