Jane Harman: “I am the mother of four children. I chose motherhood under the constitutional protections and access to medical care…”

“I am the mother of four children. I chose motherhood under the constitutional protections and access to medical care guaranteed by Roe versus Wade. Our service women and their dependents deserve the same chances to make their own choices. My amendment would do this. It would give U.S. service-women stationed overseas access to Department of Defense health facilities by repealing a provision of law which bars these women from using their own funds to obtain legal abortion services in military hospitals. Women who volunteer to serve in our armed forces already give up many freedoms and risk their lives to defend our country. They should not have to sacrifice their privacy, their health and their basic constitutional rights to a policy with no valid military purpose. This is about women's health. Local facilities in foreign nations are not equipped to safely handle certain procedures, and medical standards may be far lower than those in the United States. We are putting some of our own at risk. And it is about fairness, too. Service-women and military dependents stationed abroad do not expect special treatment, only the right to receive the same services guaranteed to American women under Roe versus Wade, at their own expense, that are available in this country.”