Party has said its ‘war on women’ is over, but Hyde Amendment reveals stealthy effort to push through anti-choice legislation

Despite Republicans’ repeated avowals that their so-called “war on women” is over, the ongoing row over a human trafficking bill and the abortion provisions tacked on to it is the latest evidence that restricting women’s reproductive rights remains at the top of the party’s agenda.

When the GOP swept into control of Congress in January, one of its first acts in the House of Representatives was to propose a 20-week abortion ban.

That blew up in the party’s faces after some rank-and-file Republicans took issue with how narrow the bill’s exception for rape was. It originally required victims to report having been raped to police in order to qualify for an abortion.

Human trafficking bill with anti-abortion addendum stalls in Senate Read more

Some among the House GOP were concerned that the bill would further damage the party’s already problematic image among women, and Republican leaders were forced to cancel the vote, upsetting conservatives as well as the liberals they had already offended by proposing the bill in the first place.

In the case of the human trafficking bill, Republicans appear to have taken a more subtle approach toward expanding restrictions on abortion. They have slipped in what appears to be routine language relating to funding, but would in fact have far-reaching consequences for women.

Referred to as the Hyde Amendment, the anti-abortion provision would bar the use of federal funds for abortion services – with limited exceptions such as cases of rape or incest.

This provision is actually approved each year as part of the “appropriations process” – the annual agreement on funding for the federal government.

But liberals objected to its being included in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act because that would mean it could become permanent.

The bill would also ban the fees and penalties paid by traffickers – one of the main aims of the bill is to increase these – from being used by the federal government for abortion services.

Last week, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell further raised the temperature of the debate by saying he would refuse to proceed with the confirmation of process of Loretta Lynch, Barack Obama’s nomination for attorney general, until the impasse over the trafficking bill and its abortion provisions was resolved.

It is unclear how that gambit will play out, but Republicans believe, at least for now, that they have the upper hand.

Democrats approved the human trafficking bill in a committee vote, only to cry foul later over the abortion issue, conceding they had not read the bill closely.

The White House also declined to issue a veto threat on the bill, although press secretary Josh Earnest called on Senate Republicans to drop the abortion language from the text.

And in the meantime, Republicans have shown some chutzpah in sending robocalls to independent female voters pointing out that Democrats are blocking a bill to combat human trafficking.

Democrats fear this is only the beginning of a Republican effort to push through anti-choice legislation by stealth. A tentative budget deal in the House on Medicare payments would also chip away at abortion rights by writing restrictions on abortions at community health centers into law.

“Whether it’s chipping away at women’s reproductive options in an anti-trafficking bill, or trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act that did so much to expand access to healthcare for women, the bottom line is Republicans are still laser-focused on putting politicians in between a woman and her doctor,” a Senate Democratic aide told the Guardian, “and unfortunately, it seems they’re getting even more creative about it.”

Republicans have openly opposed Obamacare’s requirement that insurance plans cover contraception.

As of Thursday night, the fate of the trafficking bill was in limbo. The Senate adjourned until Monday, when the top priority will be to work on the federal budget. If lawmakers fail to break the stalemate over the trafficking bill next week, it will have to wait until Congress returns in April from a two-week recess.