Henry Hyde, 83, dies; led impeachment effort

Henry Hyde, an influential Illinois Republican who sponsored landmark anti-abortion legislation, managed impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and maintained ties of bipartisan civility during more than three decades in the House of Representatives, died Thursday at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He was 83.

Mary Ann Schultz, a hospital spokeswoman, said Hyde, who had open-heart surgery in July, was admitted for persistent renal failure related to his heart condition, and died of arrhythmia.

Hyde, an eloquent speaker and adept legislator, overcame opposition in both major parties to secure passage of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortions for low-income women. It was the first significant victory for the anti-abortion movement after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 made abortion legal. The funding ban, which survived a Supreme Court challenge in 1980, has been added to congressional spending bills every year since 1977.

He was also a leader in 2003 of the ban on what abortion opponents call partial-birth abortions, the first federal restriction on an abortion procedure.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 1998, Hyde led House efforts to impeach Clinton on suspicion of lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In 1999, Hyde was the chief House manager in the unsuccessful effort to win an impeachment conviction from the Senate.

Describing the impeachment as “this melancholy procedure,” Hyde said Clinton’s conduct demeaned the office of the president, the president himself and the laws of the land. He said that “future generations of Americans must know that such behavior is not only unacceptable but bears grave consequences, including loss of integrity, trust and respect.”

Hyde, a 32-year veteran of the House, retired last year. This month, President Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“This fine man believed in the power of freedom, and he was a tireless champion of the weak and forgotten,” Bush said in a statement Thursday.