DATE: Friday, June 20, 1997                 TAG: 9706200707

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   27 lines

HOUSE UPHOLDS ABORTION BAN AT OVERSEAS BASES AMENDMENT WOULD HAVE OK'D PRIVATELY PAID ABORTIONS AT MILITARY HOSPITALS.

The House voted Thursday to maintain the ban on abortions at U.S. military hospitals overseas, rejecting for the second straight year an attempt to repeal that ban.

The amendment to a defense spending bill, offered by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., would have reopened overseas military hospitals for privately paid abortions. It was defeated 224-196.

Although the issue of abortions at overseas hospitals affects relatively few women, it has become a focus of congressional debate on abortions.

The use of overseas military hospitals for abortions was banned during the Bush administration, revived when President Clinton took office and then banned again when the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1995. Last year the House voted 225-192 to defeat an attempt to overturn the ban.

Abortions are prohibited at domestic military hospitals on the assumption that women have access to private medical facilities. But those seeking to repeal the ban on overseas hospitals argue that American servicewomen in other countries may not have safe, legal alternatives.

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