Dan Coats: “I hope when Members come over here we can separate fact from fiction. I hope Members will look at the facts of the case…”

“I hope when Members come over here we can separate fact from fiction. I hope Members will look at the facts of the case and make a decision on that basis, rather than look at the fiction that has been provided to us today by proponents of the amendment, because this is not a question of a woman's right to choose. That is a separate question. We can debate that. We are not debating that today, at least I did not think we were debating that today. The issue here is simply whether or not a woman in the military should use a military facility for an elective abortion, paid for by her funds for the cost of the procedure, but impossible to separate from the use of taxpayer funds in constructing, operating, hiring doctors, purchasing equipment, and the other associated costs with taxpayer funds provided in military hospitals. The military has no recorded evidence of anybody being denied access, denied transportation, denied the opportunity to get the abortion that they seek. But to characterize this policy as cruel, indecent, inhumane, the denial of women's rights, dangerous, back-alley foreign abortions simply, I think, does not characterize and should not characterize this debate because that is not what this issue is about.”