Image credit: Sara Wakai / Department of Defense
November 26, 2018
Congress should enhance reproductive health care for women veterans
The incoming 116th Congress will contain not only the highest ever number of women, but also a record number of women veterans. As they consider what issues to take on, expanding reproductive health care access for women veterans should be a priority: currently, women veterans do not receive equitable care on multiple fronts. Increasing their coverage goes beyond symbolic moves to change VA’s motto by providing tangible benefits.
There are three key areas requiring Congressional attention: in vitro fertilization (IVF), contraception, and abortion.
IVF – Infertility affects roughly 12 percent of married women, but VA’s medical benefits package specifically excludes provision of in vitro fertilization. Overriding this VA regulation, in 2016, Congress authorized VA to cover assisted reproductive technology for veterans and their spouses solely when a service-connected disability caused the infertility. As written and implemented, this authorization does not cover same-sex couples or veterans who are experiencing infertility for other reasons – including, for example, women who delayed pregnancy during military service due to previous policies that did not adequately support parenthood.
Read the full article in The Hill.
More from CNAS
-
Sharper: Military Recruitment
Commentary
With the 50th anniversary of the United States’ All-Volunteer Force this summer, and the current recruiting crisis potentially impacting force readiness, military personnel po...
By Anna Pederson, Ayla McBreen & Charles Horn
-
One Kansas City Veteran Said 20 Years Later She Still Doesn't Understand the War in Iraq
Podcast
Kyleanne Hunter, Ph.D., a former major in the United States Marine Corps, served from 2000-2013 and deployed to Iraq five times, joins Up to Date to discuss the legacy of the ...
By Dr. Kyleanne Hunter
-
America and the Taliban: Part Three
Video
Part Three of “America and the Taliban” investigates how negotiations between the Trump administration and the Taliban unfolded, how the Taliban seized territory in Afghanista...
By Dr. Jason Dempsey
-
Uncle Sam Really Wants You
Podcast
The US military faces its worst recruiting crisis since the draft ended in 1973. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and Kate Kuzminski join to discuss. Listen to the ful...
By Katherine L. Kuzminski
