President Donald Trump urged House Republicans on Tuesday to be “a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, telling them they would need to bend on decades-old abortion-related funding restrictions as they work on a health care insurance assistance deal.
Speaking as Republicans gathered in Washington for a caucus retreat to open the midterm election year, Trump said, “You have to be a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment and added, “You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something. You gotta use ingenuity,” according to the Associated Press report. He also told GOP leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, that if Republicans could make the approach work, “this is going to be your issue.”
Trump’s comments came as negotiations continue on Capitol Hill over expanded Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that expired on Dec. 31, 2025. The AP report said Trump advocated replacing the subsidies with direct payments that taxpayers could use for a range of health care expenses, including insurance, and quoted him saying, “Let the money go directly to the people,” as he referenced the Hyde Amendment.
While the speech emphasized flexibility on Hyde-related restrictions, Trump also acknowledged Democrats’ political advantage on health care in the wake of Republicans allowing the ACA subsidies to expire, the AP said. Democrats supporting abortion access have pushed to end the Hyde restrictions as part of any new agreements on health care subsidies, according to the report.
The Hyde Amendment, named for former Rep. Henry Hyde, was described by the AP as a policy that originally applied to Medicaid and barred federal funding for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. The report said Hyde introduced the policy in 1976 shortly after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide.
AP reported that House Republicans did not visibly react to Trump’s argument, but Senate Republicans appeared unlikely to back off demands that any new health care legislation maintain existing restrictions. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reiterated Tuesday afternoon that any legislation must ensure “that those dollars aren’t being used to go against the practice that has been in place for the last 50 years,” the AP said.
Beyond Capitol Hill, Trump’s suggestion drew swift condemnation from parts of the Republican coalition that want absolute opposition to any policy that might ease abortion restrictions. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement that it would sour core conservative voters and make Republicans “sure to lose this November.” She called Trump’s approach “an abandonment of this decades-long commitment,” and said giving in to Democrat demands would be “a massive betrayal.”
The AP said activists were also pressuring Republicans ahead of any negotiations. It cited Americans United for Life activist Gavin Oxley, who penned an op-ed for “The Hill” titled, “Republicans must hold the line: No Hyde Amendment, no deal on health care.” In the op-ed, Oxley wrote that if Republicans “play their cards right,” they “just might earn back enough of their base’s trust to sustain them through the 2026 midterms,” the AP reported.
Over the years, Congress has reauthorized Hyde policy as part of spending bills that fund the government, the AP said. The report also described how Democrats who opposed the ban have increasingly coordinated against it as positions hardened, and noted Biden’s reversal during his 2020 campaign. Republicans, the AP said, have maintained near-absolute support for the amendment.