Fox News contributor Karl Rove misrepresented controversial anti-abortion language added to human trafficking legislation that is being used by Republicans to stall Loretta Lynch's confirmation to the Department of Justice, falsely claiming it was part “a forty year bipartisan agreement.” In reality, the added provision would greatly expand the scope of the Hyde Amendment by restricting the use of private funds for abortion services.

President Obama nominated Loretta Lynch for Attorney General on November 8, 2014. Republicans have subsequently held Lynch's confirmation hostage for 162 days over controversial abortion language in an otherwise bipartisan human trafficking bill.

On the April 19 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Fox News contributor Karl Rove said Lynch's confirmation delay was rooted in Democratic efforts to repeal the “Hyde language in the trafficking bill,” a measure restricting the use of federal funds for abortion services. Rove claimed Democrats were “trying to undo a 40 year bipartisan agreement that no federal funds be used for abortion,” adding that they were “trying to play to the abortion crowd.”

But Rove failed to explain that the language added to the bill by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is modeled after the Hyde Amendment, but would provide an unprecedented expansion, subjecting private money in the new fund created for trafficking victims to federal restrictions. This language marks the first time private money would be limited by the regulation.

As Think Progress pointed out, victims of human trafficking “often need access to abortion services because they have been subject to sexual violence, so a fund designed to help them shouldn't cut off resources related to abortion.”