Don't Hide from Hyde

I believe that the Bible is clear on the value of human life - and that includes the value of life in the womb.  That is why you find scores of Bible-believing Christians and churches who are adamantly in favor of the sanctity of human life and against taking human life in the womb through abortion.  In an age in which you have pro-abortion forces that have concocted multiple ways in which life can be taken, the Church has a responsibility to defend.  Proverbs 24 (ESV) states:
11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
12 If you say, “Behold, we did not know this, ” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

Henry Hyde was a member of Congress from Illinois who, in 1976, proposed an amendment to an appropriations bill that prevented tax dollars from being used for abortion. The National Right to Life Committee stated that federal Medicaid funds had been used in hundreds of thousands of abortions annually, and something had to give.  Its website states:

That is why it was necessary for pro-life Congressman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to offer, beginning in 1976, his limitation amendment to the annual Labor Health and Human Services (LHHS) appropriations bill, to prohibit the use of funds that flow through that annual appropriations bill from being used for abortions. In a 1980 ruling (Harris v.McRae), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the Hyde Amendment did not contradict Roe v. Wade.

The pattern established under Medicaid prior to the Hyde Amendment was generally replicated in other federally-funded and federally-administered health programs.

The website noted, "In later years, as Medicaid moved more into a managed-care model, the Hyde Amendment was expanded to explicitly prohibit any federal Medicaid funds from paying for any part of a health plan that covered abortions (with narrow exceptions)."  It is renewable each year and applies to the appropriations bill dealing with the Department of Health and Human Services.  NRLC also reported on instances in which the Biden Administration issued actions that were designed to circumvent the principles of the Hyde Amendment in several federal departments.

As perhaps you are aware, Congress is debating whether or not subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act should be extended.  As Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, points out at The Washington Stand:

Hyde, an annual appropriations rider adopted every year since, established the only enduring common ground on abortion policy: Americans should not be forced to fund an act many believe is morally abhorrent — the taking of an unborn child’s life.

Despite decades of pro-abortion propaganda and cultural indoctrination, a clear majority of Americans — 57% — still oppose being compelled to fund abortions.

But recently, in a meeting dealing with the Obamacare subsidies, President Trump told lawmakers they should be “a little flexible on Hyde.”  Perkins notes: "At issue is the Affordable Care Act itself, which was deceptively designed to evade Hyde’s protections when it was passed in 2010," adding, "The COVID-era subsidies...funneled even more money into an already failing system under the pretext of emergency relief. What is now unmistakably clear is that the so-called Affordable Care Act is, in fact, unaffordable."  He said that some members of Congress have "signaled a willingness to support a short-term extension while Congress works to overhaul the system, but only if Hyde protections are included."  Perkins believes this should be a "red line" for those lawmakers.   He states:

When we consider the moral truth of the sanctity of human life in the womb — and the equally important right of citizens not to be forced to finance its destruction — we are reminded of the words of another president at a moment of national consequence who said: “Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”

Those were among the last public words spoken by Abraham Lincoln, and those words still speak today.

A CBN News article online quoted from the President, who said, "Let the money go directly to the people," adding, "Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde. You know that. You got to be a little flexible. You got to work something. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work. We're all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility."  The article pointed out:

The comments are a stark reversal for the president. Just days after being sworn-in to his second term, he signed an executive order calling for greater enforcement of the Hyde Amendment.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told CBN News there should be no flexibility on the prohibition of federal taxpayer dollars being used to pay for abortions.

"Just one year ago, we were honored to see President Trump shoring up, calling for Hyde protections, she said, "He needs to go back to a year and review his remarks."

Hawkins noted: "Since 1976, the first time we saw Hyde attached to a congressional spending resolution, it has been estimated from researchers that over two million children have been saved," she said, "They've been spared the death by abortion."

Tony Perkins, in quoting Lincoln, is right - there should be non-negotiables in our lives. Traditional opposition to taxpayer-funded abortion is continuing to be challenged, and lawmakers should dig in and not abandon this core principle.  We need to pray for the President and our lawmakers as they attempt to deal with health-care policy specifically and the running of our government generally - with, as CBN points out, another possible government shutdown looming, Congress is being confronted by the bad fruit of the last deal to keep certain parts of the government running.

We can also consider the non-negotiables that we possess.  These should be determined by our belief in the absolute truth of God's Word.  Scripture teaches a variety of areas in which Christian believers should not compromise.  When we allow for latitude that the Bible does not allow for, we can have a watered-down faith that does not operate according to the sound principles to which God calls us to adhere.  When the Church is watered-down or wishy-washy - "double-minded," as the book of James calls it, our witness is weakened.