Donald Trump tells Republicans to be 'flexible' on abortion restrictions to get a health care deal

US President Donald Trump has said that he wants Republicans to reach a deal on health care insurance assistance by being willing to bend on a 50yearold amendment that bars federal money from being spent on abortion services You have to be a little flexible on the Hyde Amendment Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday as they gathered in Washington for a caucus retreat to open the midterm election year You gotta be a little flexible You gotta work something You gotta use ingenuityWith his suggestion Trump who supported abortion rights before he entered politics in 2015 is asking conservatives to abandon or at least ease up on decades of Republican orthodoxy on abortion and spending policy At the same time he is demonstrating his longstanding malleability on abortion and acknowledging that Democrats have the political upper hand on health care after Republicans who control the White House the Senate and the House allowed the expiration of premium subsidies for people buying Affordable Care Act insurance policiesAs negotiations on Capitol Hill continue on the matter some Democrats are pushing to end the Hyde restrictions as part of any new agreements on health care subsidies Trumps road map on the Hyde Amendment came more than an hour into a stemwinding speech intended as a part strategy session and part pep rally as Republicans attempt to maintain their threadbare House majority in the November midtermsThe president touted the House GOP proposal to replace ACA subsidies which taxpayers typically steer directly to insurance companies after selecting their policies into direct payments that taxpayers could use for a range of health care expenses including insurance The expanded ACA subsidies expired on December 31 2025 hitting millions of policy holders with steep premium increasesLet the money go directly to the people Trump said before casually slipping in a reference to the Hyde Amendment Were all big fans of everything he said But you have to have flexibility Turning directly to GOP leaders including Speaker Mike Johnson Trump added If you can do that youre going to have this is going to be your issueThe president drew swift condemnation however from parts of the GOP coalition that want absolute opposition to any policy that might ease abortion restrictions Marjorie Dannenfelser president of Susan B Anthony ProLife America said it would sour core conservative voters and make Republicans sure to lose this NovemberTo suggest Republicans should be flexible is an abandonment of this decadeslong commitment she said in a statement The voters sent a GOP trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like one 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 betrayalEven before Trumps speech activists were ramping up pressure on Republicans in their talks with Democrats At Americans United for Life a leading advocacy group that opposes abortion rights Gavin Oxley penned an oped this week for The Hill titled Republicans must hold the line No Hyde Amendment no deal on health care If they play their cards right Oxley wrote Republicans just might earn back enough of their bases trust to sustain them through the 2026 midtermsThe Hyde Amendment named for the late Rep Henry Hyde originally applied to Medicaid the joint federalstate insurance program for poor and disabled Americans and barred it from paying for abortions unless the womans life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest Hyde first introduced it in 1976 shortly after the Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v Wade decision which legalized abortion nationwideOver the years Congress reauthorised Hyde policy as part of spending bills that fund the government Democrats who support abortion access often joined Republicans who opposed abortion rights as a bipartisan compromise to pass larger spending dealsBut as the two parties hardened their respective positions on abortion Democrats became more uniform opponents of the ban most famously when presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed his longstanding support for Hyde on his way to winning the 2020 Democratic nomination and general electionRepublicans have maintained their nearabsolute support for the amendment The antiabortion movement was initially skeptical of Trump as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016 But he has mostly aligned with the key faction of the Republican coalition especially on Supreme Court appointments that led to the 2022 decision overturning RoeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever