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Ending the Ban on Abortion Coverage for Peace Corps Volunteers

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Since 1979, every appropriations act signed into law funding the U.S. Peace Corps has contained a provision forbidding the organization from paying for abortions for Peace Corps Volunteers under any circumstances, even when the pregnancy is the result of rape or when it puts the life of the woman at risk. Almost every other federal government program that provides or subsidizes health care covers abortion in cases of rape, incest, or severe health risk to the woman. Federal employees and their families covered under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program have limited abortion coverage. So do members of the military and their families covered by TRICARE, as do federal prison inmates, people who receive health care from the Indian Health Service, and Medicaid beneficiaries. But Peace Corps Volunteers do not. This week, the Peace Corps Equity Act of 2014 was introduced in the House and the Senate to change this.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) (govtrack.us of Senate version) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY17) (govtrack.us of the House version) would provide Peace Corps Volunteers serving overseas--60% of whom are women, mostly in their 20s--with abortion coverage equal to that offered by most other federal health care programs.*


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