Tasha is a 24-year-old, single mother of two young children. She explained to me that she needed to have an abortion because she could not afford another child right now. She has Pennsylvania Medicaid coverage, but due to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion, she did not have insurance coverage for her procedure.

Tasha explained, “I felt so desperate picking up extra shifts at work, borrowing money and selling my things to cover the cost.” Tasha’s extraordinary efforts to obtain funding significantly prolonged her pregnancy by a matter of weeks, thereby necessitating a second trimester abortion.

If the Hyde Amendment were overturned, women like Tasha could access earlier, less complicated abortion procedures.