(4 of 4)
Some 150 other pro-choice advocates joined the effort. They met vocal opposition from pro-lifers who were picketing Capitol Hill. Two women pushing baby strollers had a curt conversation. "This is a pro-life baby," said one. Replied the other: "This is a pro-choice baby."
The target of much of the lobbying was polite but unbudgeable Congressman Hyde. As members of the clergy clustered about him, Hyde said calmly: "I'm for everyone to follow the dictates of their conscience. But a constitutional right to want something doesn't mean the right to have the Government pay for it." As the debate warmed up, Hyde tossed out one of his favorite lines: "There are 1 million children who are thrown away like Kleenex because someone thinks that they are not as valuable as a snail darter." Hyde brushed aside all counterarguments. "Taking a human life with the taxpayers' money is abhorrent," he said, "and I intend to use the political process to stop it."
The visiting churchmen and -women walked away, frustrated and angry at their inability to make any headway with Hyde. "He's intractable," observed Patricia Gavett, national director of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. "But I think he turned our clergy on politically." The aroused ministers quickly discovered that the politics of abortion is a bruising business. Last week a more stringent version of the Hyde amendment easily passed the House. It would ban federal funds for all abortions except cases in which a woman's life is in danger. As in past years, the Senate is expected to add exceptions for cases of rape, incest or potentially severe damage to the mother's physical health and then pass the legislation handily.