Left Pushes Pre-Paid Abortions in Defense Bill
Chuck Donovan /
Alongside another controversial provision in the 2011 defense authorization bill pending in Congress is language that illustrates the continuing challenge of taxpayer support for elective abortions. Included in the version of the bill that emerged from the Senate Armed Services Committee is an amendment sponsored by Sen. Roland Burris (D–IL) that would allow the use of military facilities around the world for “pre-paid” abortions.
The policy at stake has a long history, but for most of the past four decades, decisions by various Administrations and laws adopted by Congress have limited public funding for abortions in military hospitals as well as any use of those hospitals to perform elective abortions. The first iteration of the policy was President Richard Nixon’s “federalist” instruction in 1971, two years before the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Nixon directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to ensure that military medical facilities followed the law of the jurisdiction in which those facilities were located. At that time, a majority of the states and the District of Columbia had statutes that outlawed abortion under most circumstances. (more…)