I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1742
To establish leave policies of the Armed Forces for a member to seek an
abortion.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Ms. S
HERRILL(for herself, Ms. HOULAHAN, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. CROW, Ms.
S
EWELL, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. CARTERof Louisiana, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mrs.
C
HERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. TOKUDA, Ms. NORTON,
Ms. M
CCOLLUM, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. RYAN,
Ms. D
EGETTE, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. CARSON, Ms. MOORE
of Wisconsin, Ms. S
CANLON, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. PANETTA, Ms.
B
ROWNLEY, Ms. ELFRETH, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. NADLER, Ms. GARCIA
of Texas, Mr. S
WALWELL, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. GARCIA
of California, Ms. S
ALINAS, Mr. SOTO, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Ms. ANSARI,
Mr. K
HANNA, Ms. WILSONof Florida, Mr. TRAN, Mr. SORENSEN, Mrs.
H
AYES, Ms. TITUS, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Ms. MCBRIDE, Mr. DELUZIO, Mr.
L
ARSONof Connecticut, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. COURTNEY, Ms. CROCKETT,
Ms. B
UDZINSKI, Mr. JACKSONof Illinois, Ms. LOISFRANKELof Florida,
Mr. T
HOMPSONof Mississippi, Ms. JACOBS, Ms. STRICKLAND, and Mr.
P
ETERS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Armed Services
A BILL
To establish leave policies of the Armed Forces for a member
to seek an abortion.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Access to Reproductive 2
Care for Servicemembers Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Following the Supreme Court’s unjust deci-6
sion to eliminate the right to abortion, States across 7
the country have moved swiftly to ban abortion ac-8
cess, leading to even greater barriers to care for 9
military families. 10
(2) Access to the full spectrum of reproductive 11
care, including abortion, is essential to a person’s 12
health and central to their economic and social well- 13
being. Bans and restrictions on abortion delay access 14
to abortion care and therefore increase costs for 15
members of the Armed Forces seeking care. The 16
consequence of these delays and barriers could mean 17
that a person is forced to carry a pregnancy against 18
their will, which can greatly affect their bodily au-19
tonomy, financial stability, and overall well-being. 20
(3) The Armed Forces have a large presence in 21
many States that ban or restrict access to abortion, 22
many of which also neighbor States that would likely 23
ban abortion. 24
(4) Members of the Armed Forces seeking care 25
off-base may be limited in their ability to do so due 26
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to restrictions on leave or travel imposed by their 1
unit. 2
(5) Restrictions on receiving approval to take 3
leave for abortion or fertility care interfere with a 4
member of the Armed Forces’ health, well-being, 5
and right to access the care they need. The decision 6
to terminate a pregnancy or build a family should 7
not depend on the discretion or judgment of a mili-8
tary commander. 9
(6) Abortion and fertility care are time sen-10
sitive-procedures and access should not be delayed 11
for members or military families. 12
(7) When a member of the Armed Forces de-13
cides to obtain abortion or fertility care, it should be 14
available, affordable, private, and free from punish-15
ment, reprisal, or judgment by the member’s chain 16
of command. 17
(8) Commanders or approval authorities have a 18
duty to display objectivity, compassion, and discre-19
tion when addressing all health care matters, includ-20
ing reproductive health care matters, and to enforce 21
existing policies against discrimination and retalia-22
tion. 23
(9) Members of the Armed Forces and their de-24
pendents often face insurmountable barriers to ac-25
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cessing fertility care. These logistical and systemic 1
barriers include discriminatory restrictions on insur-2
ance coverage, high out-of-pocket costs, and limited 3
availability of health care facilities. As a result, 4
many members and their dependents are unable to 5
access the fertility care they need to build their fam-6
ilies. Ensuring that members and their dependents 7
can access this care is critical to promoting their re-8
productive and bodily autonomy and their right to 9
decide if, when, and how they have children. 10
(10) The harms of abortion-specific restrictions 11
fall most heavily on people who already face barriers 12
to accessing health care including people with low in-13
comes, such as junior enlisted members, and Black, 14
Indigenous, and people of color, immigrants, young 15
people, people with disabilities, the LGBTQI+ com-16
munity, and those stationed overseas or in rural and 17
other medically underserved areas. 18
(11) Equal access to abortion and fertility care, 19
everywhere, is essential to social and economic par-20
ticipation, equality, reproductive autonomy, and the 21
right to determine a person’s own life and future. 22
(12) Infertility and access to fertility care impli-23
cate core human rights—including rights to health, 24
to sexual and reproductive health, to make decisions 25
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about whether and when to have children, and to 1
equality and non-discrimination. Denying members 2
of the Armed Forces benefits to access fertility care 3
violates these rights and undermines their reproduc-4
tive and bodily autonomy. 5
(13) Members of the Armed Forces are exposed 6
to job-related risk factors that increase the likelihood 7
they will experience infertility. Many members are 8
deployed in combat areas where they may experience 9
service-related injuries or exposure to toxic chemicals 10
that harm their fertility. Additionally, the Depart-11
ment of Defense estimates that between 20 and 30 12
percent of members have experienced sexual assault 13
and post-traumatic stress disorder, both of which 14
have been linked to infertility. 15
(14) The denial of leave for an abortion or any 16
other reproductive health service violates the rights 17
of members of the Armed Forces. Access to care for 18
military families should not be determined by the 19
personal beliefs of others. 20
(15) In addition to the health and well-being 21
implications for members of the Armed Forces and 22
their families, the failure to address these issues will 23
contribute to the challenges that the Armed Forces 24
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faces in attracting and retaining personnel, thereby 1
negatively affecting military strength and readiness. 2
SEC. 3. LEAVE FOR A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES FOR 3
NON-COVERED REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH 4
CARE. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary concerned (as such 6
term is defined in section 101 of title 10, United States 7
Code) shall, with respect to non-covered reproductive 8
health care (including abortion care) for a member of the 9
Armed Forces or the dependent of such a member— 10
(1) consider such care to be time-sensitive and 11
therefore approve leave for such non-covered repro-12
ductive health care; and 13
(2) not require the member or dependent to dis-14
close to a commanding officer the time-sensitive care 15
or procedure being received during such leave. 16
(b) R
EIMBURSEMENT FOR TRAVEL.—The Secretary 17
concerned shall reimburse a member or dependent of a 18
member for costs incurred while receiving non-covered re-19
productive health care services if timely access to such 20
services is not available near the member or dependent’s 21
location. Such costs shall include— 22
(1) the cost of meals, including taxes and tips; 23
(2) the cost of lodging, including taxes, tips, 24
and services charges; 25
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(3) the cost of round-trip transportation be-1
tween the member or dependent’s location and the 2
non-covered reproductive health care service location; 3
and 4
(4) if a member of the Armed Forces or a de-5
pendent of such a member requests one or more es-6
corts or attendants, the cost of standard travel and 7
transportation allowances for one or more necessary 8
escorts or attendants. 9
(c) P
RIVACY.—Health care providers of the Defense 10
Health Agency and commanding officers shall, to the 11
greatest extent practicable, protect the privacy of a mem-12
ber who takes leave under this section, including when 13
such member makes a request for such leave and when 14
such member returns to duty. 15
(d) P
ROHIBITION.—No member of the Armed Forces 16
may be subject to any adverse action for requesting, tak-17
ing, providing, or approving an action authorized by this 18
section. 19
(e) N
ON-COVEREDREPRODUCTIVEHEALTHCARE 20
D
EFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘non-covered repro-21
ductive health care’’ includes— 22
(1) abortion care other than abortion care per-23
mitted under section 1093 of title 10, United States 24
Code; or 25
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(2) assisted reproductive technology, includ-1
ing— 2
(A) ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval, 3
including any needed medications and proce-4
dures required for retrieval, processing, and uti-5
lization of an egg for assisted reproductive tech-6
nology or cryopreservation; 7
(B) sperm collection and processing for as-8
sisted reproductive technology or 9
cryopreservation; 10
(C) intrauterine insemination; and 11
(D) in vitro fertilization, including— 12
(i) in vitro fertilization with fresh em-13
bryo transfer; 14
(ii) gamete intrafallopian transfer; 15
(iii) zygote intrafollopian transfer; 16
(iv) pronuclear stage tubal transfer; 17
(v) tubal embryo transfer; and 18
(vi) frozen embryo transfer. 19
Æ
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