WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will no longer reimburse service members for travel out of state to get reproductive health care, including abortions and fertility treatments, according to a new memo.
The directive signed this week eliminates a rarely used Biden administration policy enacted in October 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and more states began to impose increased abortion restrictions.
Signed on Wednesday by Jeffrey Register, the director of the Pentagon's human resources department, the memo simply shows red lines crossing out the previous regulation and offers no other guidance.
Asked if service members would still be allowed time off to travel at their own expense, the department had no immediate answer.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the policy change “shameful.”
“Our service members go wherever they need to in order to bravely serve our country — and because President Trump’s extremist Supreme Court overturned Roe, where they and their families are stationed quite literally dictates their access to critical reproductive care,” Warren said in a statement. “Now, Trump is turning his back on our servicemembers — and our servicewomen in particular — to score political points. It’s shameful, and will only make our troops and our nation less safe.”
Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instituted the policy in October 2022 to ensure that troops who were assigned to states where abortions or other types of health care such as IVF treatment were no longer provided could still access those services.
The Defense Department on Friday was unable to say how many times the reimbursement policy was used, or the costs. But last March, officials said it had been used by service members or their dependents just 12 times from June to December 2023. And the total cost was roughly $40,000 to cover transportation, lodging and meals.
The policy did not cover the cost of abortions, and it’s not clear how many of the 12 trips were for abortions or other type of reproductive health care, such as IVF treatment. That specific medical information is protected by health privacy law.
In his memo at the time, Austin said service members and their families were worried they may not get equal access to health care, including abortions. And he noted that service members who often must move for various missions or training would be forced to travel farther, take more time off work and pay more to access reproductive health care.
The problem, Austin said, would create extraordinary hardship and "interfere with our ability to recruit, retain, and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force.”
He ordered the department to allow troops and dependents, consistent with federal law, to take time off and use official travel to get to other states for reproductive care not available locally. That care includes in vitro fertilization and other pregnancy aids that also may not be accessible close by.
Under federal law, Defense Department medical facilities can perform abortions only when the life of the pregnant person is at risk or in cases of rape or incest, and those instances have been extremely rare. According to the department, there were 91 abortions performed in military medical facilities between 2016 and 2021.
