I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2730
To include pregnancy and loss of pregnancy as qualifying life events under
the TRICARE program and to require a study on maternal health
in the military heath system, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL8, 2025
Ms. M
ACE(for herself, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. WITTMAN, and Mr. TURNERof
Ohio) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Armed Services
A BILL
To include pregnancy and loss of pregnancy as qualifying
life events under the TRICARE program and to require
a study on maternal health in the military heath system,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Military Moms Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 5
In this Act: 6
(1) C
OVERED BENEFICIARY ; DEPENDENT; 7
TRICARE PROGRAM .—The terms ‘‘covered bene-8
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ficiary’’, ‘‘dependent’’, and ‘‘TRICARE program’’ 1
have the meanings given those terms in section 1072 2
of title 10, United States Code. 3
(2) M
ATERNAL HEALTH .—The term ‘‘maternal 4
health’’ means care during labor, birthing, prenatal 5
care, and postpartum care. 6
(3) M
ATERNITY CARE DESERT .— The term 7
‘‘maternity care desert’’ means a county in the 8
United States that does not have— 9
(A) a hospital or birth center offering ob-10
stetric care; or 11
(B) an obstetric provider. 12
(4) P
RENATAL CARE .—The term ‘‘prenatal 13
care’’ means medical care provided to maintain and 14
improve fetal and maternal health during pregnancy. 15
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 16
the Secretary of Defense. 17
SEC. 3. MODIFICATION OF QUALIFYING LIFE EVENTS. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 19
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall— 20
(1) update the list of qualifying life events 21
under the TRICARE program to include pregnancy 22
and loss of pregnancy; and 23
(2) issue guidance to covered beneficiaries de-24
scribing the documentation required to make enroll-25
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ment changes under the TRICARE program due to 1
such qualifying life events, such as written confirma-2
tion from a medical provider confirming a pregnancy 3
or loss of pregnancy. 4
(b) P
ROHIBITION.—This section shall not apply to a 5
covered beneficiary who seeks to claim an abortion as a 6
qualifying life event. 7
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) A
BORTION.—The term ‘‘abortion’’ means 9
the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, 10
drug, or other substance or device to intentionally— 11
(A) kill the unborn child of a woman 12
known to be pregnant; or 13
(B) prematurely terminate the pregnancy 14
of a woman known to be pregnant, with an in-15
tention other than to— 16
(i) increase the probability of a live 17
birth or preserve the life or health of the 18
child after a live birth; 19
(ii) remove a dead unborn child; or 20
(iii) treat an ectopic pregnancy. 21
(2) L
OSS OF PREGNANCY .—The term ‘‘loss of 22
pregnancy’’ means miscarriage or stillbirth. 23
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SEC. 4. REPORT ON ACCESS TO MATERNAL HEALTH CARE 1
WITHIN THE MILITARY HEALTH SYSTEM. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than two years after the 3
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall sub-4
mit to the Committee on Armed Services and the Com-5
mittee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee 6
on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations 7
of the House of Representatives a report on access to ma-8
ternal health care within the military health system for 9
covered beneficiaries during the preceding two-year period. 10
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The report required under sub-11
section (a) shall include the following: 12
(1) With respect to military medical treatment 13
facilities, the following: 14
(A) An analysis of the availability of ma-15
ternal health care for covered beneficiaries who 16
access the military health system through such 17
facilities. 18
(B) An identification of staffing shortages 19
in positions relating to maternal health and 20
childbirth, including obstetrician-gynecologists, 21
certified nurse midwives, and labor and delivery 22
nurses. 23
(C) A description of specific challenges 24
faced by covered beneficiaries in accessing ma-25
ternal health care at such facilities. 26
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(D) An analysis of the timeliness of access 1
to maternal health care, including wait times 2
for and travel times to appointments. 3
(E) A description of how such facilities 4
track patient satisfaction with maternal health 5
services. 6
(F) A process to establish continuity of 7
prenatal care and postpartum care for covered 8
beneficiaries who experience a permanent 9
change of station during a pregnancy. 10
(G) An identification of barriers with re-11
gard to continuity of prenatal care and 12
postpartum care during permanent changes of 13
station. 14
(H) A description of military-specific 15
health challenges impacting covered bene-16
ficiaries who receive maternal health care at 17
military medical treatment facilities, and a de-18
scription of how the Department tracks such 19
challenges. 20
(I) For the 10-year period preceding the 21
date of the submission of the report, the 22
amount of funds annually expended— 23
(i) by the Department of Defense on 24
maternal health care; and 25
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(ii) by covered beneficiaries on out-of- 1
pocket costs associated with maternal 2
health care. 3
(J) An identification of each medical facil-4
ity of the Department of Defense located in a 5
maternity care desert. 6
(K) Recommendations and legislative pro-7
posals— 8
(i) to address staffing shortages that 9
impact the positions described in subpara-10
graph (B); 11
(ii) to improve the delivery and avail-12
ability of maternal health services through 13
military medical treatment facilities and 14
improve patient experience; and 15
(iii) to improve continuity of prenatal 16
care and postpartum care for covered bene-17
ficiaries during a permanent change of sta-18
tion. 19
(2) With respect to providers within the 20
TRICARE program network that are not located at 21
or affiliated with a military medical treatment facil-22
ity, the following: 23
(A) An analysis of the availability of ma-24
ternal health care for covered beneficiaries who 25
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access the military health system through such 1
providers. 2
(B) An identification of staffing shortages 3
for such providers in positions relating to ma-4
ternal health and childbirth, including obstetri-5
cian-gynecologists, certified nurse midwives, and 6
labor and delivery nurses. 7
(C) A description of specific challenges 8
faced by covered beneficiaries in accessing ma-9
ternal health care from such providers. 10
(D) An analysis of the timeliness of access 11
to maternal health care, including wait times 12
for and travel times to appointments. 13
(E) A description of how such providers 14
track patient satisfaction with maternal health 15
services. 16
(F) A process to establish continuity of 17
prenatal care and postpartum care for covered 18
beneficiaries who experience a permanent 19
change of station during a pregnancy. 20
(G) An identification of barriers with re-21
gard to continuity of prenatal care and 22
postpartum care during permanent changes of 23
station. 24
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(H) The number of dependents who choose 1
to access maternal health care through such 2
providers. 3
(I) For the 10-year period preceding the 4
date of the submission of the report, the 5
amount of funds annually expended— 6
(i) by the Department of Defense on 7
maternal health care; and 8
(ii) by covered beneficiaries on out-of- 9
pocket costs associated with maternal 10
health care. 11
(J) Recommendations and legislative pro-12
posals— 13
(i) to address staffing shortages that 14
impact the positions described in subpara-15
graph (B); 16
(ii) to improve the delivery and avail-17
ability of maternal health services through 18
the TRICARE program and improve pa-19
tient experience; 20
(iii) to improve continuity of prenatal 21
care and postpartum care for covered bene-22
ficiaries during a permanent change of sta-23
tion; and 24
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(iv) to improve the ability of contrac-1
tors under the TRICARE program to build 2
a larger network of providers for maternal 3
health, including obstetrician-gynecologists, 4
certified nurse midwives, and labor and de-5
livery nurses. 6
SEC. 5. UPDATES TO MILITARY ONESOURCE PROGRAM. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 8
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall pub-9
lish on a publicly available website of the Military 10
OneSource program of the Department of Defense a dedi-11
cated webpage that includes a comprehensive guide of re-12
sources available to covered beneficiaries, including— 13
(1) a list of maternal health services that are 14
available to covered beneficiaries under the 15
TRICARE program and at military medical treat-16
ment facilities; 17
(2) information on mental health counseling, 18
pregnancy counseling, and other prepartum and 19
postpartum services, including what services are re-20
portable or non-reportable for members of the 21
Armed Forces; 22
(3) information on prenatal development, in-23
cluding anticipated prenatal appointments and avail-24
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able care for covered beneficiaries during prenatal 1
development; 2
(4) information on— 3
(A) organizations that provide services and 4
other resources to assist covered beneficiaries 5
with maternal health needs and pregnancy sup-6
port services located at, or in vicinity of, mili-7
tary installations; and 8
(B) Federal, State, and local maternal 9
health care resources that are either covered by 10
the TRICARE program or could otherwise be 11
made available to a covered beneficiary; 12
(5) information on resources to assist covered 13
beneficiaries who are pregnant with anticipated 14
changes and health challenges that result from preg-15
nancy, including information on anticipated post-16
natal appointments, available postnatal care for cov-17
ered beneficiaries, and post-birth instructions spe-18
cific to covered beneficiaries; 19
(6) information on financial assistance available 20
to covered beneficiaries to support pregnancy needs; 21
(7) a best practice guide for smooth continuity 22
of pregnancy care during a permanent change of 23
station; and 24
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(8) information specific to pregnant members of 1
the Armed Forces, including leave options and regu-2
lations, career field specific information and restric-3
tions, physical fitness requirements, and uniform re-4
sources and requirements. 5
(b) L
IMITATIONS.—The guide required by subsection 6
(a) may not include information, references, or resources 7
on abortion. 8
(c) T
RAINING.—The Secretary shall provide training 9
to military and family life counselors available through the 10
Military OneSource program on addressing the non-med-11
ical needs of covered beneficiaries who are pregnant. 12
(d) N
OTIFICATION OFPREGNANCY.—The Secretary 13
shall notify the head of the Military OneSource program 14
when a covered beneficiary makes the Secretary aware of 15
a pregnancy. 16
(e) P
LAN.—Not later than 540 days after the date 17
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall develop 18
and submit to Congress a plan for the Secretary to dis-19
seminate to beneficiaries of the Military OneSource pro-20
gram the guide required by subsection (a). 21
Æ
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