McCarthy House rules package includes ban on taxpayer-funded abortion - which already exists

The Hyde amendment already prohibits federal dollars going toward abortions.

The proposed rules package for the House of Representatives that Kevin McCarthy agreed to in exchange for conservatives supporting him for speaker would ban taxpayer dollars from going toward abortions - even though federal law already prohibits such funding.

Mr McCarthy reached the vote threshold in the early hours of Saturday morning after a week-long fight where many conservatives in the Republican conference opposed him.

To do so, House Republican leadership had to make changes to the proposed rules package which governs the chamber.

But one constant of previous and current versions is an agreement to allow for consideration of seven bills with one hour of debate divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans under closed rule, meaning there would be no opportunity to offer amendments.

One of the proposed bills would be to prohibit taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions.

This comes despite the fact that the Hyde amendment, initially proposed by late Illinois congressman Henry Hyde, prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars for programs like Medicaid for abortions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In addition, the rules package would allow for consideration of legislation that would “prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”

The House will vote on the propsed rules package on Monday evening. House Republicans initially hoped to have the vote on the rules package in the early hours of the morning on Saturday.

Mr McCarthy won the speakership with 216 votes early in the morning on Saturday on the 15th round. The vote came after a fight nearly broke out on the House floor after the 14th ballot when Representative Matt Gaetz voted present, denying Mr McCarthy the required vote needed. Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama at one point had to be restrained from attacking the Florida Republican.

The chaos delayed the House’s work by a week, meaning much of the legislation it wanted to pass will now have a vote this week.