Dear Conferee:
We write to express our strong support for the Boxer-Snowe provision included in the Senate-passed defense authorization bill that would allow for federally funded abortions at military facilities for victims of rape or incest. Please show your support for our troops and ensure that they are able to receive the health care they need by retaining this important provision in the final bill.
Current law only allows federally funded abortion services at military hospitals in cases of life endangerment. However, recent reports of sexual assault from female servicemembers returning from duty in Iraq and other overseas stations demonstrate, sadly, that this policy fails to address the growing need for abortion care among women in the military. Military officials revealed in February that there had been 112 reports of sexual misconduct in the previous 18 months in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Other statistics from the Department of Defense indicate that between three and six percent of active-duty women in the military have been sexually assaulted. A new report reveals that sexual-assault rates have climbed from 356 in 1999 to 469 last year in the Army alone.
These reports of rampant sexual assaults committed against women in the military - often by their male colleagues - are appalling. The current-law barrier to needed medical treatment adds insult to injury.
The funding ban places an undue financial burden on female servicemembers and military dependents and may make some women reluctant to seek these medical services or force them to delay the procedure for several weeks. Although legal abortion remains a very safe medical procedure, for each week it is delayed, the risk to the woman's health increases. Making matters worse, evidence shows that victims of sexual assault are most likely to be among the junior enlisted ranks - in other words, earning the lowest pay, and thus least likely to be able to afford needed medical care (such as abortion services) that the military refuses to provide.
Even the very restrictive Medicaid law provides public funding for low-income women seeking abortion services in cases of rape or incest, as well as cases of life endangerment. The Boxer-Snowe amendment simply brings the Department of Defense's policy in line with current Medicaid law.
It is time for Congress to ensure that military women and dependents who are victims of rape or incest are able to access the constitutionally-protected medical services to which they are entitled. Please do so by including the Boxer-Snowe provision in any final legislation.
Sincerely,
American Civil Liberties Union
Americans for Democratic Action
American Medical Women's Association
American Psychological Association
American Public Health Association
Black Women's Health Imperative
Business and Professional Women/USA
Catholics for a Free Choice
Center for Reproductive Rights Choice USA
CommonWell Associates Ltd.
Feminist Majority
Law Students for Choice
Legal Momentum (the new name of NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund)
NARAL Pro-Choice America
National Abortion Federation
National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Women's Organizations
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women's Law Center
People for the American Way
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health®
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Population Connection
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Reproductive Health Technologies Project
Republican Majority for Choice
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
The Central Conference of American Rabbis
The Miles Foundation, Inc.
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Women's Research and Education Institute