Department of Defense confronts reproductive challenges to servicewomen
A few recent changes will help, but some fall short of what is needed
Bari Wald recently sat at a Veteran’s Day Ceremony thinking that it was ironic that the country thanked her for her service in protecting their freedoms while she watched her own reproductive freedom disappear with the Dobbs decision.
“I couldn't shake the feeling that it was kind of funny,” Wald said. “I'm not free. I'm a woman who went and defended the country. And, you know, our military liberates other women and children in other countries, but our own country is not liberating our own women.”
Wald, who is in the Air Force Reserve and is the wife of a Marine, discussed the abortion she had while she was stationed in Okinawa with her husband. In 2015, she was pregnant for the first time. She discovered during the 18th week of pregnancy that she had severe abnormalities in the fetus.
“So we had made the heart-wrenching decision to have an abortion and medical termination because we felt that that was the most compassionate thing to do,” Wald said.
The Department of Defense is currently prohibited by law from providing abortion care, except in the case of rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant person. Because of that, Wald couldn’t use the naval hospital. She had to use a clinic on the island that was Japanese. She paid nearly $5,000 out-of-pocket for the procedure.
“Long story short, it was two days of just pure, I call it torture, very barbaric medical practices,” Wald said. “And we ended up fleeing the clinic in the middle of the night. And I was going to fly back to the United States the next morning, but I woke up, and I had gotten septic because they had botched the abortion.”
The naval hospital admitted her after that because her life was in danger. Wald’s story is not a singular one. Many women have gone through the same thing and those who are affected by policymaking at the Pentagon watch its decision-makers with anxiety as the choices there affect the reproductive or abortion journeys those women take.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced in October that it would provide travel and transportation allowances for servicemembers and their dependents who need to travel for abortion services. That was after years of lobbying from organizations like the Center for Reproductive Rights. The policy change was announced in a memo signed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III to improve access to reproductive services following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Bans on abortion care and coverage adversely impact veterans, servicemembers, and their families, including the women and transgender men whose service is vital to the nation’s national security. Women comprise more than 17 % of the Armed Forces and 10% of veterans. Women are also now the fastest-growing cohort within the veteran community.
As of 2017, TRICARE—the Department of Defense’s health insurance program—covered 1,563,727 women of reproductive age, including female spouses and dependents. Additionally, an estimated several thousand transgender men who serve on active duty and in the Guard or Reserve Forces, as well as thousands of transgender military dependents, are covered by TRICARE and may be impacted by the military’s abortion ban.
Earlier in October, the Center for Reproductive Rights submitted a comment in strong support of the VA’s Interim Final Rule (VA IFR) on Reproductive Health Services. The VA IFR lifts the ban on abortion counseling and the ban on abortion in the cases of rape, incest and to protect the life and health of the pregnant person. Before the VA IFR, veterans had no access to abortion care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).