June 2002 - Washington, DC—A leading pro-life advocate on Capitol Hill says an amendment passed last week by the U.S. Senate is worse than previously thought.
Last week, the Senate passed an amendment sponsored by two pro-abortion senators, including pro-abortion Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), that would allow taxpayer-funded abortions to occur at American military bases. Although similar to a pro-abortion amendment offered by pro-abortion Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and defeated in the House, John Cusey of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus told the Pro-Life Infonet the Senate amendment is much worse.
"Senator Murray’s amendment ... goes even farther than the Sanchez amendment that was defeated in the House this year," Cusey explained.
Murray described the amendment as follows: "So I will this evening offer an amendment to ensure that military personnel serving overseas have access to safe and legal abortion services."
That is only half the truth, Cusey says. The Murray amendment "not only removes the ban on abortion in military hospitals overseas, it also removes the ban on abortion in military hospitals in the United States," said Cusey. "The Sanchez Amendment removed the abortion ban from overseas military hospitals and left the ban in place for domestic military hospitals."
Then, a few months later...
2002-NOV-15: USA: Ban on abortion for military on overseas bases: The year 2003 military spending bill had contained an amendment which would have allowed U.S. military personnel to obtain privately funded abortions at overseas bases. It was passed 52 to 40 by the Senate. But the amendment has been removed because Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich, felt that President Bush would veto the entire bill if the provision remained. The revised bill was passed by the House on NOV-12 and by the senate on NOV-13.
You must have been thinking of this one (this one mentions the previous year's veto threat):
May 25, 2003 - On Thursday, May 22, both the House and Senate defeated a pair of pro-abortion amendments that would have mandated performing abortions at taxpayer-funded military bases. In the Senate, pro-abortion Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) offered the amendment and the Senate defeated it by a close 51-48 vote. After the Senate last year approved a similar amendment, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned that President Bush would veto the bill unless the provision was dropped from the bill, which it was.
Meanwhile, in the House, pro-abortion Rep. Loretta Sanchez put forward the pro-abortion amendment, as she has in previous years. The House defeated the Sanchez amendment by a 227-201 vote. Pro-life lawmakers gained a 12 vote larger margin than they had to defeat it the last time it was proposed. The House rejected the amendment in each of the last seven years.
For example, the Senate last year attached an amendment to a massive defense authorization bill to repeal an existing ban on performing abortions in military medical facilities, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest. In a September 24 letter to members of the House-Senate conference committee on that bill, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, "The President's senior advisers would recommend that the President veto the bill if it changes current law" on the use of military facilites for abortion –– the traditional formula for a veto threat. The offensive provision was quietly dropped in conference, and the bill was signed into law on December 2.