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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rescinded key components of Biden-era policies providing abortion access for military families on January 29, 2025. The Pentagon announced that funding for military abortion travel ended immediately, eliminating reimbursement for service members who needed to travel out of state for reproductive care including abortion.
The rescinded policy had been implemented by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision ended constitutional protections for abortion. Austin's policy allowed service members to take leave and receive travel expense reimbursement to obtain reproductive care—including abortions and in-vitro fertilization—if their assigned military base was in a state that had banned such care.
In a follow-up memo dated February 4, the Pentagon reinstated reimbursements for fertility treatments only, maintaining the abortion travel ban. The policy change disproportionately impacts military families because federal law already prohibits the Department of Defense from covering abortion services, and military facilities cannot provide abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the pregnant person's life.
Many military installations are located in or near states with abortion bans, and military families do not choose where they are stationed. Service members who need abortion care but do not meet the extremely limited exceptions must now navigate state bans and restrictions and pay for all care and travel out of pocket. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, approximately one million dollars in taxpayer money had been spent on military abortion travel before the program was terminated.
The policy reversal effectively creates a two-tier system where service members' access to reproductive healthcare depends entirely on where they are stationed, undermining the principle of equal treatment for military personnel regardless of duty assignment.