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President Biden just took a major stand for abortion rights. His new budget proposal, released today, excludes the Hyde Amendment—a 1976 provision that bans federal funding for abortions and forces women on Medicaid to pay for most abortions out of pocket.

As my colleague Becca Andrews wrote in March:

[The ban on using federal funds for abortion care], known as the Hyde Amendment, was passed by Congress in 1976 as an amendment to the federal budget. Thanks to Hyde, Medicaid health insurance can’t cover abortions—except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment—forcing low-income women to pay for abortions out of pocket. The amendment was the first major blow to abortion rights after Roe because it essentially cut off access to those who had always struggled to get care before the procedure was legalized.

While Biden’s proposal is a largely symbolic measure unlikely to pass the evenly divided Senate, it marks a huge shift in the president’s thinking on abortion. Biden voted for the Hyde Amendment as a senator 1976. He even opposed exceptions for rape, incest, and life endangerment. Now, he’s making a statement about all women’s rights to access affordable abortions, including the low-income women of color who bear the brunt of the Hyde Amendment.

Still, as Becca explains, low Medicaid reimbursement rates have made it costlier for providers to administer care even in situations where the Hyde Amendment doesn’t apply. Read her deep dive on the Hyde Amendment here.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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