Authorized in 1965, Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides the nation's poor with basic health and long-term care coverage. Once states have paid for medical services under their plans, the federal government reimburses them for a segment of those costs. However, this coverage is not without limits, and abortion services are among the provisions that are most stringently regulated. In August 1977, Congress implemented the first version of the Hyde Amendment which limits federal funding of abortions for women enrolled in Medicaid. Currently, federal Medicaid funding must cover abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. In Virginia there is also an exception for fetal abnormality.
SEC. 508.
(a) None of the funds appropriated under this Act, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are appropriated under this Act, shall be expended for any abortion.
(b) None of the funds appropriated under this Act, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are appropriated under this Act, shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.
SEC. 509.
(a) The limitation established in the preceding section shall not apply to an abortion-
(1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or
(2) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed.