Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Harris v. McRae that Hyde Amendment barring Medicaid abortion funding is constitutional

On June 30, 1980, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Harris v. McRae that states participating in Medicaid are not required to fund medically necessary abortions for which federal reimbursement is unavailable under the Hyde Amendment, and that the funding restriction violates neither the Fifth Amendment's due process clause nor the First Amendment. Justice Potter Stewart's majority opinion held that the Constitution does not compel the government to fund the exercise of a fundamental right. The ruling allowed the Hyde Amendment to take full effect, ending federal Medicaid coverage for an estimated 300,000 low-income women per year who had depended on it since the program's 1965 creation.