Pro-Life News

Stars and Stripes: Military Abortions

Proposed amendment would have Defense Department pay for abortions in cases of rape and incest
Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. -- Sexual assault victims advocate Christine Hansen wants to see female troops, especially those deployed to combat zones under the Bush administration, have the same access to reproductive health — from contraception to abortion — as any other American woman. According to the Pentagon’s Care for Victims of Sexual Assaults, a committee formed after reports of rapes and sexual assaults by troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, there were 901 reported cases of sexual assault in 2002, and 1,012 in 2003 throughout the military. Of those, 118 (24 in 2002 and 94 in 2003) were reported from the Central Command area of responsibility, which includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Still more attacks have been reported to the Miles Foundation, (Miles Foundation blasts Defense Department`s sexual assault report) an organization that provides services to victims of violence associated with the military, said Hansen, the group’s executive director. Under current law, abortions are permitted in three cases: when the mother’s life is in danger, and in cases of rape or incest, and with the latter two, the woman must pay for the procedure. In March, Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, co-wrote an amendment to the Defense Authorization spending bill that would have the Defense Department pay for abortions in cases of rape or incest. The measure made it into the Senate version of the bill, but not the House of Representatives. In September, lawmakers will begin hashing out the differences.

Related
The Church Must Oppose the Sin of Women at War!
If certain federal lawmakers have their way, your eighteen-year-old daughters will be registered for selective service and drafted for combat by the next war or U.N. "peacekeeping" operation. Should she find herself engaged in an overseas military exercise of any kind, you will be expected to accept as part of her duty, that if captured, she may be shot and gang raped. You will be told that this is the price of freedom which must be equally borne by men and women alike. If this future seems far-fetched, then you may be blind to one of the single greatest socio-cultural changes to occur in the history of West for more than 2,500 years.

Posted by Editor at August 24, 2004 06:59 PM