US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed the military Thursday to make it easier for servicemembers to access reproductive health care including abortions, as a growing number of states enact restrictions on the procedure.
The US Supreme Court in June struck down the decades-old constitutional right to abortion across the country, returning the decision on whether to allow it to individual states, more than a dozen of which have instituted bans.
That makes it more difficult for members of the military stationed in such states to obtain abortions, requiring some to take leave and travel to areas where the procedure is legal.
The Supreme Court decision “has diminished access to reproductive health care, with recruitment, retention and readiness impacts across the force,” a defense official told journalists.
It has “created complexity, confusion and anxiety for servicemembers and families, who may now need to travel significant distances for reproductive health care,” the official said.
Federal law prohibits the Defense Department from funding or providing abortion services except in cases such as a threat to the life of the mother, but Austin issued a memo directing other steps to ease access to care.
He told the department to develop a policy that allows servicemembers to take administrative absences in order to receive “non-covered reproductive health care,” and for it to establish travel and transportation allowances to help servicemembers cover costs.
The memo also calls for steps to be taken to increase privacy for servicemembers.
These include extending the time they have to inform their commanders that they are pregnant, and telling Defense Department health care providers that they cannot disclose reproductive health care information to commanders.
But there are exceptions to both, such as “occupational health hazards” in the case of the former measure, and “harm to the mission” in the latter.
Austin also wants to protect Defense Department health care providers against legal action resulting from “appropriately performing their official duties” by indemnifying them against any verdict or other monetary award.
A second defense official said that this is aimed at reassuring providers that they have the backing of the department when “providing federally authorized reproductive health care.”
The situation changes in criminal cases, however, with the official saying it would be up to the Department of Justice to decide if they want to represent a provider.
