The 2020 US election could decide the fate of a 40-year-old ban on abortion funding.

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For the past 44 years, every US Congress and president have approved a federal budget that includes a ban on federal funding for abortion services, except in extreme cases. It's known as the Hyde Amendment, and even politicians who support abortion access have voted in favor of it. But the landscape of abortion access has evolved so much that Joe Biden might become the first president to lift the Hyde Amendment from the federal budget.

Banning federal funding for abortion services primarily affects people who rely on Medicaid for their health care: people who are living close to the poverty line in the US or are disabled. This has the effect of preventing some of the country’s most vulnerable people from accessing abortion services, since they are the least likely to be able to afford an out-of-pocket expense.

This was the third in our series of 2020 election explainers, all based on viewer suggestions. Watch the others, which cover the stakes of the election on:
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Further reading:

For some of Vox's coverage on the impact of the Hyde Amendment:
https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/6...

For a history of the Democratic party and the Hyde Amendment: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...

For Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis of the Hyde Amendment's impact:
https://www.kff.org/womens-health-pol...

Note: The headline on this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: How the US keeps poor people from accessing abortion | 2020 Election

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