Implications of the Austin-Lambda Decision for Reproductive Health Care in the U.S. Military and a Defense Adviser
As more and more states have stopped providing abortion care since the overturn of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, the Pentagon has decided to pay for service members to travel for the procedure.
Austin’s memo seeks to address concerns about reproductive privacy in other ways. A service member who is pregnant must report the baby to 20 weeks in order to keep their job. The department’s health providers are not allowed to give reproductive health information to commanders if they have a risk of harm to the mission.
The practical effect of the recent changes is that service members may be compelled to travel greater distances, take more time off work and pay more out-of-pocket expenses for reproductive health care, all of which have readiness, recruiting and retention implications for America’s armed forces. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, speaking to reporters Thursday.
A federal policy known as the Hyde Amendment already prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. The report to Congress stated that over 90 abortions were performed in the U.S. military hospitals between 2016 and 2021.
Texas, the home of Fort Hood, which is one of the nation’s largest military bases, is offering a bounty of $10,000 for residents who successfully lawsuit someone who helped them access or perform an abortion after it’s no longer legal.
Health care providers who work for the Department of Defense are also taken care of by the memo. Fees for providers who desire to become licensed in other states so that they can perform official duties will be reimbursed by the Pentagon, along with providing legal and other support to providers who face civil or criminal penalties.
Reply to “Comment on Access to reproductive care for the service women in the United States’ ” by Michael Bennet [at the Colorado Senate Way]
Michael Bennet is a Democrat who is the senior US senator from Colorado. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
I applaud the Biden administration for these steps to protect access to care for the service women who protect us, but the administration should go further. The Pentagon has no policy to account for the harm caused by moving a base from a state that protects access to reproductive care to a state that does not.
The number of women enlisting in the military has grown significantly over time. They now make up roughly 20% of the total force and 34% of the civilian workforce. They don’t want to serve where they were assigned when they volunteered for active duty. The Pentagon makes that decision.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/opinions/military-service-women-abortion-access-bennet/index.html
What do we have to lose in defending our freedom? How the Biden, DeSantis and other attacks can help strengthen our readiness and defend our right to choose
18 states have restricted or banned abortions since the Supreme Court’s overturn of Wade. Even if it’s rape or incest, all 10 of them have no exceptions. Meanwhile, radical state legislators have introduced bills restricting the freedom of women to travel from one state to another for reproductive care. Iowa and Nebraska were the first states to chip away at a woman’s right to choose.
Alabama, home to six military bases, has threatened doctors and nurses with up to 99 years in jail for performing an abortion. The state’s attorney general even suggested using a chemical endangerment law – which is designed to protect kids from meth – to prosecute women for ending their pregnancies with a medication abortion pill.
In Florida, which is home to 21 military bases, Gov. Ron DeSantis just endorsed a six-week abortion ban. He may not even know that a third of women don’t even know they are pregnant until after six weeks.
Our military readiness cannot be jeopardized by these cruel policies and we can’t allow reproductive care to become another casualty of the war.
A recent study from RAND Corporation found that Dobbs could increase attrition, decrease readiness and harm military recruiting. And that’s after the Pentagon just had its worst recruiting year since the Vietnam War ended.
The third policy gives service members more time before they need to tell their commanding officer that they’re pregnant, while giving women in uniform more space and privacy to make their own decisions on whether or not to have a baby.
For example, the Pentagon is now considering whether to move the US Space Command from Colorado, which protects abortion access, to Alabama, which criminalizes it. When the Pentagon makes basing decisions, like this, some of the factors it considers include number of available parking spaces, housing affordability and area construction costs.
What’s not on the list? Whether the state prohibits abortion, imprisons doctors who perform it or turns its residents into bounty hunters against women is up to the state.
Nine months after Dobbs it can be easy to feel powerless as one state after another attacks the right to choose. One specific way that Biden can hold the line, strengthen our readiness and protect the freedom of service women who spend their days defending ours, is through this particular method.