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This is shocking, even for our U.S. Congress.
If a female employee of the U.S. State Department is raped while serving abroad in Afghanistan, her federal health plan will
pay for an abortion should she become pregnant. However if a woman serving abroad as a member of the U.S. military is raped,
her military health plan will NOT provide for an abortion if she becomes pregnant as a result of that violent and reprehensible
act.
According to a recent report from Mother Jones,1 the Pentagon has an even more drastic policy on access to abortion
than the Hyde Amendment which bans the use of federal funds for abortion care unless a woman has been the victim of rape,
incest or she could literally die unless she her pregnancy is terminated.
This disparity is so unsettling that the Senate Armed Services Committee recently passed a proposal that would fix this loophole
in federal law on a rare bipartisan vote. But the extremists in Congress will almost certainly strip this proposal from the
National Defense Authorization Act when it comes up for a vote in the House. The only way we can hope to stop it is with
massive public pushback.
According to Kate Sheppard's report in Mother Jones,2 there are 200,000 women serving on active duty in
our military and in 2011 alone there were 471 reported instances of rape. But with the Pentagon itself estimating that only
13.5% of rapes are officially reported, that means around 3,500 service members are raped per year.
Women who are serving on military bases abroad can't simply go to their local Planned Parenthood should they seek an abortion
after finding themselves pregnant as a result of rape. And if there hasn't been a formal finding of rape, a rape survivor
in the military can't even pay to have the procedure done in the medical facility on base. Many women serving in our armed
forces are stationed in foreign countries where safe abortion care is not easily obtained outside our military bases. And
it may not be possible or affordable for a raped woman soldier to travel to the United States in order to receive the care
she needs. Our policies need to be reformed to ensure that women in the military who have been raped have access to the medical
care they need.
As Senator Jean Shaheen who introduced the proposal change to this heinous policy explained to Mother Jones, "Most
of the women affected here are enlisted women who are making about $18,000 a year. They're young, they don't have access
to a lot of resources. Many of them are overseas."
A handful of Republicans in the Senate realized that protecting rape
survivors is not a partisan issue and joined Democrats
to pass this bill out of committee and work to provide relief to women
in our armed services. But their colleagues in the
House will not join them in helping to pass this much needed bill unless
we force them to take action. We need to tell Republicans
as well as anti-choice Democrats in the House (including the so-called
Stupak Democrats who voted against women's reproductive
health in the Affordable Care Act)3 that we cannot let this policy stand.
CREDO is a staunch supporter of a woman's right to choose and we will continue to work for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment.
But until then, even in our polarized Congress which is packed with anti-choice zealots, there are some lines that Republicans
and anti-choice Democrats should be very afraid to cross. This is one of them. We cannot stand by and let women serving in
the U.S. military be subjected to a stricter standard for abortion access than the already horribly restrictive Hyde Amendment.
Click below to automatically sign the petition:
https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/military_choice/index.html?p=military_choice&r=6900212
This is one we can win if enough of us speak out. Thank you for taking action.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
1.
House GOP Blocking Abortion Access for Raped Soldiers, Mother Jones, June 13, 2012.
2. ibid. 3. Many Previously Pro-Choice Dems Voted for Stupak Amendment, FiveThirtyEight.com, November 9, 2009 |
BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
14 June 2012
Tell House Republicans: Don't block abortion access for raped soldiers 14JUN12
OUR female warriors deserve better than this...bottom line, they deserve the right to an abortion if they are raped, and it should be covered by the military health services. Period. If you care about how this country treats rape victims in the US military click the link and sign the petition....
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