Patty Murray: “Basically, today a woman who serves in the military overseas at a facility, if she so desires to have an abortion--and…”

“Basically, today a woman who serves in the military overseas at a facility, if she so desires to have an abortion--and it is her choice; it is her personal choice between herself and her family and her doctor and her religion--has to go to her commanding officer to ask for permission to come home to the United States to have a safe and legal abortion. Then she has to wait for military transport. She has to pay $10, as the opponents told us this morning, for food on that military transport, and come home in order to have a safe and legal abortion. The pending amendment simply allows women who serve in our military overseas today to pay for their own medical choice decisions in a military hospital where it is safe and is a place where they can be assured they will be taken care of, as we should expect we would take care of all people who serve us in the military.”