Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T04:14:44.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Medicaid Not Required to Fund Medically Necessary Abortions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

George J. Annas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In an extraordinary and highly controversial 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court decided on June 30, 1980, that the United States Constitution does not require either the federal government or the individual states to fund medically necessary abortions for poor women who qualify for Medicaid.

At issue in this case is the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment. The applicable 1980 version provides:

|N]one of the funds provided by this joint resolution shall be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term; or except for such medical procedures necessary for the victims of rape or incest when such rape or incest has been reported promptly to a law enforcement agency or public health service, (emphasis supplied)

Type
Health Law Notes
Information
Nursing Law & Ethics , Volume 1 , Issue 8 , October 1980 , pp. 3 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Harris v.McRae, 100 S.Ct. 2671, 48 USLW 4941 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. 464 (1977) (U.S. Constitution does not require the funding of elective abortions even if the state funds childbirth because the state can legitimately favor childbirth over abortion to protect fetal life).Google Scholar
3. See Annas, GJ, Let Them Eat Cake, Hastings Center Report 7(4):8 (Aug. 1977).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed