Illinois county votes to rename courthouse in rebuke to author of pro-life Hyde Amendment

Democrats in Illinois’ second-largest county have voted to remove the name of a deceased Congressman from a local courthouse because of his pro-life views.

The DuPage County Board voted 10-5 along party lines Tuesday to strip the name of Rep. Henry Hyde, a Republican who served 32 years in Congress, from the county’s Wheaton, Illinois, courthouse, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The courthouse, which is about 25 miles from Chicago, will now be known as the DuPage County Judicial Office Facility. 

Hyde, who served from 1975 to 2007, is best known for authoring the Hyde Amendment, a provision included in every federal budget since 1977 that prevents federal funding from paying for elective abortions. 

Deb Conroy, chair of the board, proposed the resolution because she strongly opposes the Hyde Amendment. 

“What that says is that if you are not a woman who has a full-time job with insurance or had the ability to pay for it privately, you do not deserve the same health care as others,” she told ABC 7. 

Conroy, a Democrat, said a constituent asked her if she would do it during her last campaign and she agreed. 

“It wasn’t something that was on my radar, to be honest with you,” she said. 

“I am a woman of my words,” she added. 

But DuPage County Board Republicans opposed the resolution, as did Democrat David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama’s senior adviser from 2009 to 2011. 

“This is so narrow-minded,” board member James Zay told Fox 32, 

Member Sam Tornatore added, “I’m opposed to [the resolution] because it’s unnecessary. This is canceling in its purest form.” 

Axelrod said DuPage County, which has 921,000 residents and includes many Chicago suburbs such as Downers Grove and Naperville, made a mistake with the renaming. 

“I disagreed w/ Hyde but he was an honorable man; a WW II vet who devoted his life to service. Regrettable move,” Axelrod posted on X. 

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America says the Hyde Amendment has prevented over 2.5 million abortions. 

Hyde viewed legal abortion as a step backward for the United States amid other important progress. 

He approvingly cited the abolition of slavery, civil rights, Social Security, voting rights for women and minorities, and public accommodations for handicapped people as examples of the nation’s progress. 

“This great trajectory in our national history was shattered by Roe vs. Wade and its progeny,” Hyde said in 1998. “By denying an entire class of human beings the welcome and the protection of our laws we have betrayed what is best in our tradition. We have put at risk every life that someday someone might find inconvenient.”