Female service members seeking abortions or fertility treatments will soon receive up to three weeks of leave for the procedures and have their travel expenses covered under three new Department of Defense policies. They will also have up to 20 weeks to inform their commands that they are pregnant.
The department rolled out the policies on Thursday in an effort to expand troops' access to abortion and reproductive healthcare not covered by the military health program and build on the actions outlined in an October memo from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
According to Pentagon officials, the new policies "reinforce the Secretary of Defense's commitment to taking care of our people, ensuring their health and well-being, and ensuring the Force remains ready and resilient."
Service members will now receive up to 21 days of leave to obtain an abortion or fertility treatments, without deducting those days from other leave allowances. Military members who accompany their spouse or dependent for such care are also covered under the new policy.
Travel and transportation expenses for those who leave their duty station to obtain an abortion or access reproductive medicine will be covered and service members will be given up to 20 weeks to notify their commands of pregnancy.
Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gil Cisneros Jr. said the services have 30 days to implement the new policies, according to Military.com.
“It is DOD policy that ... service members will be able to access lawfully available non-covered reproductive health care regardless of where they are stationed," the policies, signed by Cisneros, state.
The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe activated a number of state laws banning or severely restricting abortion.
Approximately 240,000 service members are stationed in at least 13 states with trigger laws on the books that took effect when Roe was reversed, according to Military.com. These laws ban abortion in most cases, with exceptions for rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is at risk.
There are military populations in six states that have total bans on abortion, including West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
Military hospitals are only able to perform the controversial procedure in cases of rape or incest or if the mother's life is endangered, according to Military.com. Government-funded travel could only be used for abortions in these circumstances previously as well.
Since 2016, there have been 91 abortions performed in U.S. military hospitals, according to a Defense Department report obtained by Military.com. At least two-thirds of these abortions were for active-duty service women.
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