Defending the Rights of the Women Who Defend Us

Today, Reps. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), Robert D. Andrews (D-N.J.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) stood up for U.S. servicewomen, and submitted an amendment to the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would end the unconscionable policy of denying rape survivors serving in the military health coverage for abortion care. The all-powerful House of Representatives Committee on Rules will decide this week whether this amendment — protecting the health and rights of U.S. servicewomen — deserves to get a vote.

Sexual assault in the armed services is at crisis levels. Tragically, we see story after story of servicewomen being attacked by their own colleagues. In the fiscal year 2010, according to the Department of Defense, 3,158 military sexual assaults were reported, many of which were reports of rape. As DOD officials have stated, even “one sexual assault is one too many,” but the above number — which is in the thousands — barely scratches the surface. Most servicewomen who have experienced sexual violence do not report the incident. Researchers estimate that up to one-third of women experience an attempted or completed rape during their military service.

In the face of this epidemic, federal law denies servicewomen and military families coverage for abortion care, even in cases of rape or incest. By contrast, the federal bans on abortion coverage for women enrolled in Medicaid, disabled women enrolled in Medicare, federal employees (other than members of the armed services), women who receive health care through the Indian Health Service, and women in federal prisons, all include exceptions for rape survivors. (The only other coverage restriction that doesn’t include a rape exception is the ban on abortion coverage for another group of women serving our country — those in the Peace Corps.) Even extreme and unprecedented anti-choice bills pending in Congress include exceptions for rape and incest.

Every woman should have the health care coverage she needs, regardless of how she pays for it. At the very least our military women deserve the same access to care as all of the other women who get their health insurance through the federal government.

As Undersecretary of Defense Clifford Stanley stated, “the American public should rightfully expect that when their...daughters raise their right hand to serve our great nation, they do so in a culture and environment where dignity, respect and protection prevail.”

U.S. servicewomen put their lives on the line for us every day. We owe it to them to fight for their dignity and respect their choices. Thank you Reps. Davis, Andrews, DeGette, Maloney, Sanchez and Slaughter for acting to correct this injustice.

Tell your representatives that this important issue deserves a vote — it’s time to defend the rights of the women who defend us.


http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom-womens-rights/defending-rights-women-who-defend-us


I believe this is missing the major point.

It is the fact the women are being raped on the job that is the problem here. What kind of men are we allowing in our military anyway? We can identify precursors to rape in men. They are hostile towards women, they are highly judgmental of women believing most to be slut/whores or capable of slut/whore actions, they get off on frightening women, etc... So why can't we weed them out?

Most insurances do not cover abortion so why should the federal insurances be any different? If a woman works in a bakery and gets raped, if she doesn't get the "morning after pill" then she will have to go and pay for the abortion like everyone else does. But again the issue here is that she got raped on the job by a coworker and that it has happened here before, like the military issue.

I do support the women who serve this country but I don't know that I am in agreement with this.

Anyone have an opinion?

I'm pondering this Dragoness....I have mixed feelings.

IF they were actually raped, i will agree 100%... but inter-personnel relationships is forbidden in the military, so who say they are always being truthful if they become pregnant? people do tend to lie when their career and life is on the line

I concur!

It was such a problem in Iraq that servicewomen were instructed not to go to the showers alone.

Wow, that was unexpected. I totally agree. AFter a rape there is the morning after pill,,which I think should be covered

if that option is not used, I dont feel it should be a mandated insurance expense to cover a (much more costly) abortion

To both of you

??

This is alarming.

What the hell is wrong with our military? Any man who is sexually inappropriate in the military needs to be discharged!!!

I am shocked and appalled.

Of course I do know that our military screws these men up but to just allow this kind of behavior????

Ditto ??

i think she meant it as a male bashing thread, and we interrupted her... I think everyone knows that women just don't lie...

i've got a real problem with your thinking here on a couple of fronts, dragoness. first though, know that i think the court got it right in roe v wade. the government most definately must stay out of a woman's right to chose. at the same time, i consider abortion for ANY purpose other than to guard the health of the woman to be morally and ethically wrong INCLUDING aborting a fetus who's only crime was to be concieved during rape or incest. you'd deprive a viable fetus of life because the mother might be traumatized or otherwise inconvenienced???? roe, of course was not about the use of government funding for abortion so this "defense" of women's rights in this case is totally unfounded. who says a woman has a right to federal funding for abortion?

as regards women's rights and the military, anybody who's ever served knows full well that once a soldier swears the oath he/she gives up most of his rights under the constitution and subjects him/herself to the jurisdiction of the ucmj. you lose the right to speak freely, the right to equal due process, the right to remain silent, the right to a jury of your peers, even the right to habeus corpus.

maybe you'd do well to quell your alarm and shock a little, dragon. that another poster claimed that "It was such a problem in Iraq that servicewomen were instructed not to go to the showers alone" doesn't make it so. it's bad enough that we use the media as an info source but to pay credence to a poster on a dating site is really something else again.

Yup, a lot of people don't understand the difference if they never served.

I remember being shocked when I took my oath to defend my flurry. There is one line where you say something like - I understand I can be executed for dereliction of duty.

You say on your oath that you give permission for your chain of command to kill you.



This may sound cold. But there was a reason they didn't let women in the military earlier. I believe this just shows why it isn't a good idea.

Anyone that argues that the men should just keep it in their pants is of course correct on these situations. However, pragmatically - that is a pipe dream.

no, there's nothing like that in the oath. shall we put it to rest? here ya go folks:

"I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Dragoness, I rarely agree with you...but on this particular comment I do, wholeheartedly.

As to the original question....

I am pro-life, just for the record. BUT I think these women should be given the morning after pill if they want it in cases of rape. I believe that because they are serving our country they should get MORE than what is offered in the private sector. So, the bakery situation is irrelevant in my opinion. Just because private industry doesn't offer it doesn't mean our service people shouldn't get it. I feel they don't get enough as it is and should get BETTER medical service than the private sector.

They don't understand what? That it's a "pipe dream" to think that some of these men should be able to control themselves, making it the woman's fault for even being in the military?

I know I will get a lot of flack for this...but I completely agree with this statement.

However, since they are there...give them the damn morning after pill if they want it. It hardly costs anything to the tax payers.

It is a pipe dream. Look, if I walk into a gang infested neighborhood in the middle of the night, the gangs have NO RIGHT to attack me and should be punished if they do. However, it's going to happen. They will attack me and I know it. So, maybe I shouldn't go in there.

we seem to have strayed from the point of the topic. i'd think we can all agree that all women, whether in the military or wherever, have the right to not be raped or otherwise have their civil liberties violated. the topic, as i see it, involves a woman's right to have the government pay for an abortion. i say women have no such right. if the government must stay out of a woman's right to choose, then the government should stay our paying for the woman's choice.