House again passes ban on abortions at military facilities

Voting 192-225 on May 14, the House defeated an effort to reverse the current prohibition on privately funded abortions at military facilities except in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest. Introduced by pro-choice Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Jane Harman (D-CA), and Mike Ward (D-KY) and mixed record Representative Peter Torkildsen (R-MA), the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 3230) would have repealed restrictive language in the statute that governs the Department of Defense (DOD). Floor action on the provision of non-government-funded abortions mirrored Representative DeLauro's failed attempts to strike the onerous provision during the mark-up process for HR 3230, which received final House approval in a 272-153 vote on May 15. The House National Security Committee voted 26-20 against removing the abortion restriction on May 1, six days after a similar 11-5 vote by the Subcommittee on Military Personnel. The near ban on abortion services has been in effect since December of last year, when the DOD spending bill was implemented; President Clinton signed the legislation permanently encoding the restriction into law in February (see RFN IV/22, V/3-4). Upon taking office in January 1993, President Clinton had issued an executive memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to reverse the ban on the performance of non-lifesaving, privately funded abortions at military facilities, which had been instituted through agency action in mid-1988 (see RFN II/3, IV/13). The DOD authorization statute has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortions except in cases of life endangerment for more than a decade.