Posted on 06/20/2002 3:52:19 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
WASHINGTON- Women serving in the military overseas should not be denied their constitutional right to safe and legal abortions, Sen. Patty Murray said Thursday in trying to reverse a policy of prohibiting privately funded abortions in military hospitals abroad.
Murray, D-Wash., proposed lifting the ban in an amendment to a $393 billion defense spending bill the Senate is now considering.
Chances of including the measure in the defense bill that eventually goes to the president are not high. The Republican-controlled House last month, for the seventh straight year, rejected a similar amendment. The vote this year was 215-202, largely along party lines, against lifting the restriction. The Senate is to vote on Murray's proposal Friday.
Congress banned abortions at military facilities overseas in 1988. President Clinton lifted the ban by an executive order in 1993, but Congress overturned that decision in the 1996 defense authorization bill.
Exceptions to the ban are made when the life of the mother is endangered, in which case the government will pay for the abortion, and for rape and incest, when the mother can pay for an abortion at a military hospital.
But Murray argued that this still deprives the 100,000 women stationed overseas of a basic right enjoyed by women at home.
She said military women seeking an abortion must seek approval from their commanding officer for leave to travel back to the United States, a process that compromises a woman's privacy rights. The other alternative is to obtain an abortion in the host country, where doctors may not speak English and may lack the training of American doctors.
Speaking in opposition, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said the amendment "attempts to turn taxpayer-funded Department of Defense medical treatment facilities into, unfortunately, abortion clinics."
And I'd guess there are about 80% freepers that are anti-abortion.
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