WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- The House of Representatives Wednesday rejected a measure to allow military members to get abortions at U.S. military hospitals using private funds.
It is the tenth year the House has rejected such an amendment to the defense authorization bill. Congress banned abortions -- even if paid for by an individual's private funds -- at federally funded facilities, including military hospitals, in 1996.
Thirty Democrats joined House Republicans to defeat the amendment.
Military women who are overseas and want abortions have to take personal leave or vacation time to fly back to the United States or another country where abortion is safe and legal to obtain the operation.
"When an individual puts on the uniform of the U.S. Armed Forces, she or he accepts the profound responsibility of defending our nation and protecting our cherished freedoms. A woman who puts her life on the line to defend the fundamental rights of all Americans should not be deprived of her own fundamental right to choose," Rep. Jane Harman, a sponsor of the failed amendment, stated Wednesday.
There are nearly 200,000 women in the U.S. military and 12,000 serving in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The amendment does not force military doctors to perform abortions, nor does it require any taxpayer dollars. What it does, however, is give servicewomen and female military dependents stationed abroad the same constitutional rights as women living here," Harman said.
Service members' reproductive options are restricted in other ways. Military hospitals only provide RU-486 in cases of rape or when the woman's life is in danger. RU-486 was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000 as an abortifacient -- that is, a pill used early in pregnancy to cause a non-surgical abortion.
Similarly, the U.S. military is not required to stock the "morning after" pill, which is used to prevent conception.
