Letter Urges Lawmakers to Lift Abortion Coverage Ban for Federal Employees

The Hyde Amendment is a policy rider that has been included in the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill for most of the past 40 years.

The amendment’s inclusion has long prohibited covered funds from being spent on abortion services, except in cases where pregnancies are the result of rape or incest, or the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.

As a House subcommittee considers the Financial Services and General Government appropriations package for fiscal year 2024, The DOJ Gender Equality Network (DOJ GEN) is urging a group of five Democratic lawmakers to “strongly oppose” the ban on comprehensive abortion coverage for federal employees if it is ultimately included in that package.

“The Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) is the largest employer-sponsored group health insurance program in the world, covering almost nine million people,” DOJ GEN wrote in a recent letter to Democrats on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

“Every fiscal year since 1983 except for one, Congress has denied those beneficiaries—including more than two million federal employees—the opportunity to choose a private health plan that includes comprehensive abortion coverage. Instead, we must pay out of pocket unless in extreme circumstances: if our lives are in danger or if our pregnancies resulted from rape or incest.”

Expanding Abortion Coverage

Saying that the federal employees comprising the DOJ Gender Equality Network have “learned the hard way” that the government denies them access to “the full spectrum of healthcare,” the letter shared an anonymous account from one of its members to illustrate that point.

“I was distraught when my doctor told me that my fetus had a condition that was ‘incompatible with life,’ ” the letter read. “The doctor explained that my pregnancy would either result in a late stillbirth or the death of my son within days after being born, during which time he would be in pain and would be unable to eat, breathe or regulate his body temperature on his own.

“My doctor advised me to call my insurance company to help assess my options,” the letter continued, explaining that the member’s insurance company informed her that terminating her pregnancy would not be covered by her federal insurance plan.

“The worst day of my life was made more traumatic by being told that I would not be supported if I made the incredibly difficult decision to terminate my pregnancy, which I viewed as the only way to protect the fetus from a very short life of pain.”

Denying federal employees like this DOJ GEN member would also put the government “out of step” with the private sector, according to the letter, which notes that the “vast majority” of insured private sector employees work for organizations that include abortion coverage in some or all cases.

Saying that this disparity hampers the federal government’s ability to recruit and retain talent, the letter calls on Congress to “demonstrate its commitment to federal civil servants by finally ending the exclusion of abortion coverage from our healthcare plans,” adding that the DOJ GEN also strongly supports the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act.

“These steps,” the letter read, “would expand abortion coverage for millions of Americans.”