A Long Way From Home: Restrictions on Federal Funding of Abortions for Peace Corps Volunteers

Abstract: Since 1979, Congress has prohibited the Peace Corps from funding Volunteer abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment of the Volunteer's life. This approach directly contrasts with domestic abortion policies, such as Medicaid and those in federal prisons, which contain funding exceptions in these dire circumstances. Affording female Peace Corps Volunteers the same rights enjoyed by other federal employees who receive health care from the government should be uncontroversial. Domestic appropriations politics, however, cloud the focus of this policy, which should be Volunteer health and safety, and thwart efforts for legislative change. Meanwhile, Female Volunteers risk their safety and give two years of their lives to serve in remote regions of the world. In the name of fairness, the Peace Corps Act should be permanently amended to ensure that politics play no role in the provision of comprehensive medical care to female Volunteers.IntroductionIn 1984, while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, Carol Clark, then twenty-two years old, was raped on two separate occasions by a Nepalese Peace Corps employee three months into her twentyseven month service.1 Compounding the trauma of sexual assault, Clark became pregnant as a result of the first attack and faced a difficult choice: to obtain an abortion or quit the Peace Corps.2 The latter option would mean the end of a life-long dream of helping others while serving her country.3 Reflecting on the best option for her life at that juncture, Clark, who had "not [been] pro-choice until that moment," decided to have an abortion.4 While stationed abroad, Clark was completely dependent on the Peace Corps for her medical care.5 Bound by unyielding restrictions disabling the agency from providing Clark with access to the range of medical care she required, the Peace Corps evacuated her thousands of miles away to Hawaii for the procedure.6 Due to these restrictions, the Peace Corps could not pay for the actual abortion procedure.7 Clark, living offof a modest volunteer stipend covering only basic living expenses in Nepal, was forced to cover the cost of the procedure.8 Faced with the prospect of ostracism by her devoutly Christian family, who told her that she was not welcome home if she was pregnant, Clark had to ask the family of her closest friend back home to pay for the abortion.9Since 1979, Congress, through annual Foreign Operations appropriations legislation, has prohibited the Peace Corps from covering the expense of Volunteer abortions.10 There is no exception for instances of rape, incest, or life-threatening circumstances.11 Of the over nine thousand U.S. citizens currently serving in the Peace Corps around the world, sixty-one percent are women with an average age of twenty-eight.12 Peace Corps Volunteers are public servants; they are accorded status as federal employees and are funded as employees through federal taxes.13 Volunteers serve in remote locations in developing countries where safe and adequate medical care may be hundreds of miles away in major cities or not available at all.14 Furthermore, statistics show that within a decade, over one thousand American women serving in the Peace Corps had experienced sexual assault or rape while serving as Volunteers.15 A 2012 report compiled by the Peace Corps' Inspector General revealed that Volunteers "experience higher rates of rape . . . than any of the 86 countries that responded to the United Nations crime statistics analysis."16 These facts are alarming on their own, but when coupled with the harsh restrictions on abortion funding for Volunteer victims of sexual assault, the situation becomes dire.17Although the Peace Corps has recently adopted new security protocols to better monitor and ensure the safety of Volunteers, these important steps are undercut because Congress continually prohibits the agency from providing a full range of essential medical care, including abortion in exigent circumstances. …