American Civil Liberties Union

Congress Should Lift the Ban that Denies Peace Corps Volunteers Coverage for Abortion Care

Senate Appropriations Committee Takes Important First Step

Every year, over 8,000 people serve in the Peace Corps, venturing to far-flung regions of the world to give their time and energy to aid communities in developing countries, as cultural ambassadors for America.ⁱ Peace Corps volunteers sacrifice the comforts of home, and at times their health and safety, to carry out the agency’s mission. They do so out of the goodness of their hearts, and for the good of the world, receiving only a stipend to cover basic costs like food and housing.ⁱⁱ

Since 1979, Congress has prohibited the Peace Corps from providing coverage for abortion services in their health care program with no exception. Even the allowances for abortion coverage in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment that are found in other discriminatory federal restrictions are denied to women serving in the Peace Corps – despite the fact that these women often serve in countries where good and safe medical care is hard to come by, and the Peace Corps has acknowledged that it is in the midst of grappling with a serious sexual assault problem.

The current policy is unfair and unjust. This year, the Senate Appropriations Committee took an important first step by adding exceptions for cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest to the ban in the FY 2012 State and Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (S. 1601).

All women deserve access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

If a woman chooses to carry her pregnancy to term, the Peace Corps medical services program provides coverage for her necessary medical care. But if the same woman needs to end her pregnancy, the Peace Corps cannot provide coverage for her abortion – even if continuing the pregnancy threatens her life.

The ACLU believes that every woman should have the reproductive health care coverage she needs, and that all of the bans on insurance coverage from abortion should be repealed in their entirety. They are discriminatory, and they harm women’s health. But at the very least, Peace Corps volunteers deserve the same access to care as all the other women who get their health insurance through the federal government.

The ban on abortion coverage for Peace Corps volunteers, even in cases of rape and life endangerment, is at odds with federal policy applying to other insurance programs.

By contrast, the federal bans on abortion coverage for women enrolled in Medicaid, disabled women enrolled in Medicare, federal employees, women serving in the military, women who receive health care through the Indian Health Service, and women in federal prisons, all include longstanding exceptions for instances where a woman’s life is in jeopardy. And all of these but the military health care program include abortion coverage for rape survivors.ⁱⁱⁱ

Similarly, the abortion restrictions in the recently enacted Affordable Care Act also provide exceptions for life, rape, and incest. Although Congress hotly debated the contours of those restrictions, access to abortion care for women in these situations was never even questioned. Indeed, even extreme anti-choice legislation seeking new bans abortion coverage includes exceptions for life, rape, and incest.^iv

Women serving in the Peace Corps – some 60% of all Peace Corps volunteers^v – have been left behind and singled out for worse treatment.

The Peace Corps has an acknowledged problem with sexual assault.

According to internal Peace Corps statistics, between 2000 and 2009, there were hundreds rapes, attempted rapes, and major sexual assaults perpetrated against Peace Corps volunteers.^vi A 2010 report by the Peace Corps’ inspector general found that Peace Corps volunteers experience higher rates of rape than any of the 86 countries that participated in a United Nations analysis of crime statistics.^vii

In May 2011, former Peace Corps volunteers testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about being sexually assaulted during their services, the lack of response they received from the agency, and systemic problems.^viii The Peace Corps has acknowledged that the current situation is untenable, and Congress is working to provide volunteers with more protections.

The conditions Peace Corps volunteers face highlight the need for reproductive health care, and the harms of its absence.

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Congress should act now to end the ban on abortion coverage for women serving in the Peace Corps. At the very least, they should lift the ban in cases of life, rape, and incest, as in the FY 2012 Senate State and Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

The women of the Peace Corps deserve more from the country they serve.

i PEACE CORPS, FACT SHEET 1 (2011), available at http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/about/pc_facts.pdf.
ii See Peace Corps, Financial Benefits and Loan Deferment, http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whyvol.finben (last visited Sept. 21,2011).
iii ACLU, Congress Should Lift the Statutory Ban that Denies U.S. Servicewomen Coverage for Abortion Care in Cases of Rape and Incest (May, 13, 2011).
iv See No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, H.R. 3/S. 906, 112th Cong. (2011).
v PEACE CORPS, FACT SHEET 1.
vi Anna Schecter & Brian Ross, Peace Corps Gang Rape: Volunteer Says U.S. Agency Ignored Warnings, ABC NEWS, Jan.12, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/peace-corps-gang-rape-volunteer-jess-smoch....
vii PEACE CORPS OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, FINAL AUDIT REPORT: PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER SAFETY AND SECURITY PROGRAM 1 (2010), available at http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/PC_Safety_and_S....
viii Peace Corps at 50: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Foreign Affairs, 112th Cong. (2011) (statement of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairwoman, H. Comm. on Foreign Affairs), available at http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=1819.