Abortion Access in the Military

Floor Speech

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Mr. CROW. Madam Speaker, I rise in absolute fury today over what is going on to American women and this horrific decision by the Supreme Court to take away a fundamental right--for the first time in our Nation's history, to take away a fundamental right for millions of American women.

Egregious enough in its own right that this has happened, we compound it with the fact that tens of thousands of women who have stood up to answer our Nation's call, to raise their right hand, to take the oath, to give their life for this country, to defend our freedoms, now don't have the same freedoms themselves.

What is going on in this country?

I served this country as an Army Ranger, three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I served with my fellow men and women. I now sit in this body. I sit on the Committee on Armed Services with my good friend, Jackie Speier, where we now make policy that impacts the very servicemembers like I used to be.

I remember what it was like being Private Crow, sitting in those boots, having to live with the consequences of the decisions made under this dome. I think about that now. I think about all the young women who want to serve. Maybe they want to follow in the footsteps of their mother or their grandmother. Maybe they are deeply patriotic people, and they want to give back to their country. Maybe they are trying to pursue better opportunities and get some money for college.

Whatever the motivation, they stand up and take the same oath that I took and the same oath that millions of others have taken over our Nation's history. It is an oath that says you are willing to give your life and put it all on the line for your fellow countrymen and -women. Now, we are asking those women to not just be willing to give their lives in defense of our Nation but to do so in a way that sets aside their own fundamental rights and their own freedoms and gives them second-class citizenship in the process of doing it.

What is going on in this country and in this Capitol? We know that abortion care is a time-sensitive and necessary procedure, and we know that if servicemembers can't access this necessary healthcare, their very own health is in jeopardy.

Let's just take a minute. Let's just set aside the moral arguments. Let's just park those for a minute and just talk about military readiness. Let's talk about the defense of this Nation that people love to talk about here in this Capitol: support the troops, tie a yellow ribbon around the tree. All right, how about we actually do right by the people who are willing to make those sacrifices?

Servicemembers don't have a choice of where they go to serve. That is part of the deal. You raise your right hand, go to boot camp, get trained on your job, and go where the Nation needs you. Are we really going to send thousands of women to places where they don't have rights and can't access healthcare? How is that in the interests of our force? How does that create a healthy, productive, vibrant military? How is that good for recruiting? Well, it is not, obviously.

It is not often where we have an issue that is just so egregiously abusive to people who are trying to do the right thing. It is not often where we are literally in a position of dissuading young men and women from serving this Nation and making it harder for them to do it and making it harder for our military to recruit them.

That is why I have been proud to work with Jackie Speier. We started this effort by co-leading together the MARCH for Servicemembers Act, and then we talked to folks. We held roundtables. We held discussions. We knew that just wasn't going to do it, that that wasn't enough. We had to do more.

That is why we drafted and are pursuing this legislation, the Access to Reproductive Care for Servicemembers Act, which will require commanders to approve leave for abortion care automatically. It will make DOD reimburse servicemembers for the cost of travel to receive care, and it guarantees privacy protections for servicemembers against retaliation from commanding officers and peers.

Imagine that, being retaliated against by your commanding officer. Well, it should be illegal, and we are going to try to make it illegal.

Folks, until we can pass a national law protecting abortion care and abortion rights for women, which we are going to try to do--and we are going to have to get rid of the filibuster to do it in the Senate-- until we do that, we are going to do everything possible to protect everybody we can.

Now, today, it is going to continue with us protecting our servicewomen. They are willing to give everything for us. The least we can do is have their backs.

We must pass this bill. I implore my fellow Members to walk the talk. Don't just talk about supporting our servicemembers. Do it. This is the way to do it. We can and must do this. We must have their back. Let's get this done.

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