President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Republicans to consider compromising on a long-standing amendment that prevents federal funds from being used for abortion services to strike a deal on health care insurance aid.

During a retreat in Washington, Trump told House Republicans, “You have to be a little flexible” regarding the Hyde Amendment as they strategized for the upcoming midterm elections. He emphasized, “You gotta work something out. You gotta use ingenuity.”

Trump’s stance signals a departure from decades of Republican principles on abortion and fiscal policies, urging conservatives to reconsider their position. This move underscores his shifting views on abortion since entering the political arena in 2015 and acknowledges the leverage Democrats hold in health care discussions. This comes after Republicans, despite leading the White House and both Congressional houses, allowed Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies to lapse.

As discussions persist on Capitol Hill, several Democrats advocate for lifting the Hyde restrictions in any forthcoming health care subsidy agreements.

Trump’s remarks on the Hyde Amendment were delivered roughly an hour into an energetic speech that served both as a strategic planning session and a motivational rally for Republicans aiming to retain their slim House majority in the November elections.

The president touted the House GOP proposal to replace ACA subsidies — which taxpayers typically steer directly to insurance companies after selecting their policies — into direct payments that taxpayers could use for a range of health care expenses, including insurance. The expanded ACA subsidies expired on Dec. 31, 2025, hitting millions of policy holders with steep premium increases.

“Let the money go directly to the people,” Trump said, before casually slipping in a reference to the Hyde Amendment.

“We’re all big fans of everything,” he said. “But you have to have flexibility.”

Turning directly to GOP leaders, Trump added, “If you can do that, you’re going to have — this is going to be your issue.”

But the GOP faces considerable pressure from parts of its coalition that want absolute opposition to any policy that might ease abortion restrictions.

At Americans United for Life, a leading advocacy group that opposes abortion rights, Gavin Oxley penned an op-ed this week for “The Hill” titled, “Republicans must hold the line: No Hyde Amendment, no deal on health care.”

“If they play their cards right,” Oxley wrote, “Republicans just might earn back enough of their base’s trust to sustain them through the 2026 midterms.”

The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde, originally applied to Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurance program for poor and disabled Americans, and barred it from paying for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Hyde first introduced it in 1976, shortly after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Over the years, Congress reauthorized Hyde policy as part of spending bills that fund the government. Democrats who support abortion access often joined Republicans who opposed abortion rights as a bipartisan compromise to pass larger spending deals. But as the two parties hardened their respective positions on abortion, Democrats became more uniform opponents of the ban, most famously when presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed his long-standing support for Hyde on his way to winning the 2020 Democratic nomination and general election.

Republicans, meanwhile, have maintained their near absolute support for the amendment.

The anti-abortion movement was initially skeptical of Trump as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016. But he has mostly aligned with the key faction of the Republican coalition, especially on Supreme Court appointments that led to the 2022 decision overturning Roe.