CONGRESSWOMAN SUSAN DAVIS FIGHTS TO EXTEND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS TO MILITARY WOMEN
Congresswoman Susan A. Davis
53rd District, San Diego, California
PRESS RELEASE
MAY 20, 2004
CONTACT: AARON HUNTER
202-225-1686
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Susan Davis fought to give women serving in the military the right to choose in an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill in the House of Representatives. The amendment failed on a 202-221 vote.
“These women who have already sacrificed so much, must also forfeit their privacy, health and the very liberties they are fighting to protect,” said Rep. Davis. “I believe they deserve better.”
Davis’s amendment allows military personnel and their family members serving overseas to use their own funds to obtain safe, legal abortion services in overseas US military hospitals.
Current law prohibits the use of US military medical facilities to obtain abortion services even if personal funds are used. This requires a woman to either return to the United States, which can be difficult, or use medical facilities in which the country they are stationed. Many of these facilities do not meet the safety and medical standards of the US.
As a former military spouse who lived overseas, Davis understands the importance of this right for the more than 100,000 women who presently live on overseas military bases.
Under Davis’s amendment, federal funds would be not used. It affects only US military facilities overseas, and does not violate host country laws. The amendment does not compel any doctor who opposes abortion on principle to perform one.
Davis is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
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