If/When/How believes that human and constitutional rights should be enjoyed equally by all — and not be contingent on one’s income level, insurance carrier, or geography. In the 1980 case Harris v. McRae, the United States Supreme Court narrowly upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal Medicaid coverage of nearly all abortions. The slim majority reasoned the while the State could not place an obstacle in the path of a person exercising their right to abortion, it need not remove obstacles from their path. Dissenting Justices reasoned that the Hyde Amendment is an effective ban on the right to abortion for people with low incomes, a disproportionate number of whom are women of color. The ruling was a grave miscarriage of justice that set the course for a legally acceptable, though morally reprehensible, two-tiered system of abortion access, which has worsened over time and disproportionately disadvantaged low-income people, especially communities of color.

Longstanding efforts to end the Hyde Amendment and restore state Medicaid coverage of abortion through legislation must be accompanied by novel legal theories, scholarship, and litigation to overturn damaging precedent and legally secure the right to abortion coverage. If/When/How is leading the charge to generate creative and courageous approaches to undoing this legal travesty.

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