Ipas and Ibis release report on Helms and Hyde Amendments

March 2016

Ipas and Ibis released the first inclusive report and fact sheet on how the Helms and Hyde Amendments harm access to abortion. The Helms and Hyde restrictions prohibit funding for abortion through US foreign aid and federally-funded health insurance programs like Medicaid, respectively. The report highlights the ways in which the Amendments violate human rights, impose barriers on access to safe abortion for women and young women, and tie the hands of the health-care providers who serve them. The authors also draw on several case studies, examining countries working to reduce unsafe abortion under the Helms Amendment, and providing a look at Medicaid coverage of abortion in three US states. The Helms and Hyde Amendments disproportionately affect young, poor, women of color across the globe.

For more information on Ibis's research documenting the impact of the Hyde Amendment on low-income women and abortion providers, please visit our project page.