Patty Murray: “Mr. President, today we are offering the Murray-Snowe amendment. It is an amendment which would lift restrictions on…”

“Mr. President, today we are offering the Murray-Snowe amendment. It is an amendment which would lift restrictions on privately funded abortions at military facilities overseas. This is the identical amendment we have offered every year since 1995, and I assure my colleagues that we will continue to offer this amendment until we restore this important health care protection for our women who are serving abroad. It is simply outrageous that today we deny military personnel and their dependents access to safe, affordable, and legal reproductive health care services. We ask these women to serve their country and defend our Government, but we deny them basic rights that are afforded all women in this country. To be clear, this is not about Federal funding of abortion. Many of our military personnel serve in hostile areas or in countries that do not provide safe and legal abortion services. Military personnel and their families who serve us overseas should not be forced to seek back alley abortions or abortions in facilities that do not meet the same clinical standards we expect and demand in this country.”