By now, you might have heard Christine Carcano's story. Carcano, who was a health volunteer with the Peace Corps, has bravely detailed the story of what happened to her while she was serving in Peru. "I was assaulted about four months into my service" she told me. "I was walking with the man who was to become my attacker, and we were on our way to his sister's home around 9 P.M. It was outside of his sister's home that he pinned me down and proceeded to rape me. I was eventually able to fight him off, but not soon enough."

Carcano didn't immediately report the assault due to what she described as "stigma, fear, self-blame, and denial." Then she became ill and was diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease. As doctors treated her, she learned she was pregnant, carrying her rapist's baby. Shocking enough, right? But things got worse. When doctors told her the news, Carcano says, "I was presented with two options: continue with the pregnancy and have all related expenses paid, or terminate." Any costs from the abortion, she would have to cover. (Keep in mind that volunteers earn a meager monthly stipend of roughly $300 to $500; an abortion in a doctor's office costs about $500.)

Why such unequal support for one of those choices? There is congressional ban on health coverage for abortion in all cases (including rape, incest, and life endangerment) for volunteers serving in the Peace Corps. Data from 2000 to 2009 show that, on average, 22 Peace Corps women each year reported being the victims of rape or attempted rape. During that same time, more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers reported sexual assaults, according to a 2011 story in* The New York Times*.

Ironically, one of the reasons Carcano didn't want to tell anyone about the rape was because she wanted to protect the Peace Corps: "I had been adamant from the start that I would not share the assault and, subsequently, the pregnancy and termination with my parents—I wanted to preserve the reputation of Peace Corps and of my service and position within the organization in my parents' eyes," she says. "It was a struggle—I had to sacrifice my emotional and financial support." Another volunteer's mother helped her pay for the procedure.

Though the Peace Corps has had a checkered past about dealing with sexual violence, some of the reforms they instituted may be working: Carcano said the support she got from her Peace Corps medical officer was "nothing but positive. She was a mother figure, a friend, a provider, and an incredibly compassionate and caring individual. She was invested in my general mental and emotional well-being. I know it pained her to tell me that there was not more [the] Peace Corps could provide financially in that situation, and she did everything in her power to make sure I was taken care of in every other aspect."