Abortion provision dropped from defense bill

According to Congressional Quarterly Today, the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees have agreed to drop the Burris Amendment from the 2011 Defense Department authorization bill. The Burris Amendment would have allowed abortions at overseas military hospitals. The controversial amendment was removed along with other controversial amendments in order to get enough votes for bill to pass.

The abortion provision, written by Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.), was included in a previous version of the Senate's bill (S 3454). The provision would have repealed a policy that bans provision of nearly all abortion services at military hospitals, even if paid for with private funds. If enacted, the measure would have allowed military servicewomen and their dependents to obtain abortion care at military hospitals if they paid for the procedure with their own money

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