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I received an email today from CREDO Action Fund that I thought was important to share with all of you:
If a female employee of the U.S. State Department is raped while serving abroad in Afghanistan, her federal health plan will pay for an abortion should she become pregnant. However if a woman serving abroad as a member of the U.S. military is raped, her military health plan will NOT provide for an abortion if she becomes pregnant as a result of that violent and reprehensible act.
According to a report earlier this year from Mother Jones, the Pentagon has an even more drastic policy on access to abortion than the Hyde Amendment which bans the use of federal funds for abortion care unless a woman has been the victim of rape, incest or she could literally die unless she her pregnancy is terminated.
This disparity is so unsettling that the Senate passed out of committee the "Shaheen Amendment" to give women in the military the same rights to affordable reproductive health services as the civilians they protect. But if passed by the full Senate, the extremists in Congress will try to block this proposal from the National Defense Authorization Act when it comes up for a vote in the House. The only way we can hope to stop it is with massive public pushback.
Tell Republicans and anti-choice Democrats in the House: Don't block abortion access for raped soldiers. Click here to sign this petition automatically.
According to Kate Sheppard's report in Mother Jones,2 there are 200,000 women serving on active duty in our military and in 2011 alone there were 471 reported instances of rape. But with the Pentagon itself estimating that only 13.5% of rapes are officially reported, that means around 3,500 service members are raped per year.
Women who are serving on military bases abroad can't simply go to their local Planned Parenthood should they seek an abortion after finding themselves pregnant as a result of rape. And if there hasn't been a formal finding of rape, a rape survivor in the military can't even pay to have the procedure done in the medical facility on base. Many women serving in our armed forces are stationed in foreign countries where safe abortion care is not easily obtained outside our military bases. And it may not be possible or affordable for a raped woman soldier to travel to the United States in order to receive the care she needs. Our policies need to be reformed to ensure that women in the military who have been raped have access to the medical care they need.
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As Senator Jean Shaheen who introduced the change to this heinous policy explained to Mother Jones, "Most of the women affected here are enlisted women who are making about $18,000 a year. They're young, they don't have access to a lot of resources. Many of them are overseas."
A handful of Republicans in the Senate realized that protecting rape survivors is not a partisan issue and joined Democrats to pass this bill out of committee and work to provide relief to women in our armed services. But their colleagues in the House will not join them in helping to pass this much needed bill unless we force them to take action. We need to tell Republicans as well as anti-choice Democrats in the House (including the so-called Stupak Democrats who voted against women's reproductive health in the Affordable Care Act)3 that we cannot let this policy stand.
You can sign CREDO's petition here:
http://act.credoaction.com/...
You can also learn more about the Shaheen Amendment here:
http://www.motherjones.com/...
It's completely insane for the House to block Senator Jeanne Shaheen's (D. NH) Amendment. It serves a great purpose and there is no reason for raped female soldiers to be denied abortions.
Senator Shaheen has been praised for her work in the Senate to combat violence towards women. Earlier this month, Shaheen was inducted into the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence for her work to support victims of sexual violence and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA):
http://www.seacoastonline.com/...
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“Senator Shaheen has been an integral part of the Coalition's history through her work as Governor, and now as U.S. Senator,” said Maureen McDonald, Community Relations Director at the Coalition. “Her leadership on the Violence Against Women Act is greatly appreciated in this community and we cannot thank her enough for all of her tireless efforts on behalf of victims.” - SeacoastOnline, 11/9/12
Shaheen lead the effort to pass a new version of the VAWA that includes protection for victims of same-sex relationships, for immigrant victims and for women on tribal lands. It passed the Senate 68-31.
Shaheen will be up for re-election in 2014 and we need a strong voice in the Senate who speaks out against violence towards women. Please sign the petition and lets help give her the resources she needs to win re-election in 2014:
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https://secure.actblue.com/...