NYT: Abortion Shld Be Covered by Insurance- PeaceCorps rapes

[NewOrleans]

OK, say what now to the bolded?  I was unaware, and my own unawareness surprises me. 
I am interested in hearing more about women being assaulted in the Peace Corps, which is the real reason I'm posting this (since it's really not that compelling a writing piece).  @mx?


Women make up more than 60 percent of the Peace Corps, volunteers who are often put in situations where safe and reliable medical care is difficult to find and where they face the risk of sexual assault. Yet federal law does not allow abortion coverage in the volunteers’ health care program, even in cases of rape or incest, or when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life. Next week, subcommittees in both the House and the Senate will begin work on a Peace Corps budget for the next fiscal year. The lawmakers should repeal this unfair prohibition.

For the second year in a row, President Obama included language in his budget proposal that would permit Peace Corps members to use their government insurance to pay for abortions in those three narrow circumstances. Two Democrats, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Representative Nita Lowey of New York, reintroduced legislation last month to accomplish that.

The current rule, which dates back to 1979, prohibits the Peace Corps from providing abortion coverage, with no exceptions. Although it touches on the politically charged issue of abortion, the proposed change should not be controversial. All it would do is extend to women in the Peace Corps the same coverage in cases of rape, incest and endangerment to life now afforded to other people who work for the federal government and to Medicaid recipients. These are longstanding standards. Rape victims in federal prisons, for instance, receive government-funded abortions. And last year, Congress lifted a similar ban on abortion coverage for military women.

All women should be allowed comprehensive reproductive health care coverage. Women taking risks to advance the country’s interests by serving in the Peace Corps should not be treated worse than other federal employees when it comes to insurance coverage.

“It is absolutely unconscionable that female Peace Corps volunteers who are victims of sexual assault, or whose pregnancies endanger their lives, are not afforded the same health care access as virtually all other women with federal health coverage,” Ms. Lowey argues. It is time for Congress to end this injustice.

www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/opinion/abortions-should-be-covered-by-insurance.html?_r=0

[overture]

I...actually didn't know that either. I know the gag rule goes back and forth depending on who the president is, but guess I didn't think federal government-sponsored health plans covered abortion at all.

[Deleted]

I'd heard about the issue with rape in the peace corps. I believe I've also heard that women suffer a high rate of violence in that organization as well but that it's largely downplayed so as not to deter volunteers.

Unfortunately, I have no stats for this.

[gretchenindisguise]

Well to be fair, for prisoners all of their healthcare services of any sort are paid for by the government and they don't have a choice/ability to use anything else. If government didn't pay there would be no way for them to get one.

[PinkSquirrel]

Jun 16, 2014 15:35:30 GMT -5 overture said:

I...actually didn't know that either. I know the gag rule goes back and forth depending on who the president is, but guess I didn't think federal government-sponsored health plans covered abortion at all.

The Hyde Amendment allows it under cases rape, incest and life of the mother.  There's actually a decent chunk of people in the US who technically qualify for free abortions under Hyde, but the process of getting approved is something no one bothers with because of the hoops involved.  It's easier to just call your local abortion fund and none of us bother trying to work around Hyde.

[PinkSquirrel]

Jun 16, 2014 15:44:27 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Well to be fair, for prisoners all of their healthcare services of any sort are paid for by the government and they don't have a choice/ability to use anything else. If government didn't pay there would be no way for them to get one.

That's not always true.  I've been part of getting people abortions in prison when it's not covered by state prison insurance.