The 2020 US election could decide the fate of a 40-year-old ban on abortion funding. Watch more 2020 election explainers at http://vox.com/ElectionVideos For the past 44 years, every US Congress and president have approved a federal budget that includes a ban on federal funding for abortion services, except in extreme cases. It's known as the Hyde Amendment, and even politicians who support abortion access have voted in favor of it. But the landscape of abortion access has evolved so much that Joe Biden might become the first president to lift the Hyde Amendment from the federal budget. Banning federal funding for abortion services primarily affects people who rely on Medicaid for their health care: people who are living close to the poverty line in the US or are disabled. This has the effect of preventing some of the country’s most vulnerable people from accessing abortion services, since they are the least likely to be able to afford an out-of-pocket expense. This was the third in our series of 2020 election explainers, all based on viewer suggestions. Watch the others, which cover the stakes of the election on: 1) Climate change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfAXbGInwno 2) Voting rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al3qY8ZMHEc 3) Reproductive health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzuk13Ftxgo 4) Public schools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFJ37ri-Saw 5) Police reform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHePglP28CM 6) America’s role in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5LrQv496Iw 7) Transportation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZDZtBRTyeI 8) LGBTQ rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRnpUptf7E0 9) The eviction crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F07yTI0J3Qk Further reading: For some of Vox's coverage on the impact of the Hyde Amendment: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/6/20/18683995/abortion-hyde-amendment-medicaid-insurance-louisiana For a history of the Democratic party and the Hyde Amendment: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/democrats-hyde-amendment-history/591646/ For Kaiser Family Foundation's analysis of the Hyde Amendment's impact: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/the-hyde-amendment-and-coverage-for-abortion-services/ Note: The headline on this piece has been updated. Previous headline: How the US keeps poor people from accessing abortion | 2020 Election Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H