December 1, 2011

Congress Says FU to Service Women!?

Wow...what a way to give the women of the US Armed Forced a big "screw you".

The Shaheen Amendment to the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act was shut down by Congress.  Evidently it is more important to be "pro-life" than "pro-military".

A little background.  From October of 2009 until October 2010 there were roughly 750 service women raped.  Actually, let me re-phrase that for accuracy: In fiscal year 2010 there were probably about 6500 service women raped, but since only about 14% are reported we know there were definitely around 750 rapes.

If that isn't bad enough, if a Servicewoman who was raped manages to get pregnant, she cannot choose to have an abortion, or more specifically, she cannot use the normal medical channels afforded to military personnel for such a procedure. Senator Shaheen realized how messed up this is and introduced her amendment to change this one aspect.  Her fellow congressmen shot the amendment down.

If a woman was in civilian service or even in Federal Prison they can use their insurance for an abortion in case of rape.  Servicewomen can only get help if their lives are at risk.

They should have to stand for this, and neither should we.  Contact your Representative and your Senator and let them know you think this is fucked up and needs to be changed ASAP.

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