Mr. Chairman, I will rise to support this amendment which would reverse the shameful policy forbidding women in our Armed Forces from using even their own funds to pay for an abortion at a safe U.S. medical facility abroad. It is truly sad and disgraceful that our current policy requires women who are serving their country to sacrifice their constitutional right to an abortion if they so choose.
I have heard the rhetoric from the opponents of this amendment. They say that abortion is terrible. Well, that is their opinion. They are entitled to it. But it is the law. It is a constitutional right of a woman, if she so chooses, to have an abortion. And as long as that is so, she should not be required to sacrifice her constitutional right because she serves her country in the military abroad, or to choose to give up her right or to go into a possibly unsafe foreign facility.
I have heard people say, well, even if she spends her own money, she might have to spend money for a doctor because doctors do not want to do it.
It is not up to doctors or anybody else as to whether people should enjoy their constitutional rights. If it costs money to enable a woman who has chosen to serve her country in the armed services to have the ability to have her constitutional rights, then it costs money. Although I do not see why we should make sure that among the doctors in the military there are those who are willing to perform any service that the Constitution requires be afforded upon request.
So even to require a woman to give up her constitutional right which she has, and whatever you may say about the duty is to heal and not to take a life, some of us do not regard that as taking a life. But it is her constitutional right. She should not be required to give it up, especially when she pays for it herself. We should not discriminate against women in the military.