Republicans — even a small number of them — joining with Democrats on Capitol Hill to protect women’s reproductive rights is a rare and welcome sight. Last week, Senators John McCain of Arizona, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Susan Collins of Maine voted with nearly all the Democrats on the Armed Services Committee to lift a cruel and insulting law that requires female service members who are victims of rape or incest to pay for abortion care they receive at military facilities.

Under current law, military doctors may perform abortions only in cases of rape, incest or when the woman’s life is endangered, an outrageous restriction on a woman’s right to make her own childbearing decisions that imposes special hardship on women serving overseas. The fact that service members who are victims of rape and incest are required to pay for their medical help is further insult to women serving their country.

Civilians who work for the federal government or rely on Medicaid can use their government insurance to pay for abortions in cases of sexual assault as well as life-threatening situations. Female inmates raped in prison also receive government-financed abortion coverage. Granting women who wear the nation’s uniform lesser abortion coverage is all the more shameful given the serious problem of sexual assault among service members.

The fact that nine Republicans on the committee refused to support the measure is one more reminder of how extreme the party’s abortion politics have become. Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, also voted no.