The Pentagon quietly reversed a policy that provided reimbursement for service members who needed to travel far from where they are based in order to get reproductive health care, including abortions.
Without any public announcement, the Pentagon's travel regulations were updated this week to remove the language allowing service members to get travel and transportation allowances for travel related to reproductive health care.
The change was publicly revealed Thursday evening by advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers, who highlighted that the updated policy was posted online. A defense official confirmed Friday the travel regulations were updated earlier in the week, but provided no additional comment.
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The travel reimbursement policy was put in place by the Biden administration in response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to ban abortion.
Since service members are not able to choose where they are stationed and some of the biggest bases are in states that have banned or severely restricted abortion since the Supreme Court ruling, the Biden administration argued that making it easier for service members to travel for reproductive health care was imperative to ensuring women join and stay in the military.
While the abortion aspect of the Pentagon policy garnered the most attention, the policy allowed for travel allowances for a range of reproductive health care that is not provided by the military, including fertility treatments.
The entire policy has now been repealed -- meaning both fertility treatment-related travel and abortion-related travel are no longer eligible for reimbursement.
"This decision strips away service members' ability to access the reproductive care they need, which is nothing short of abhorrent," 19 Senate Democrats, including every Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a joint statement Thursday night. "It runs contrary to a core goal of the Department of Defense -- to ensure the health and wellbeing of all our service members so that our force remains ready at all times to protect Americans and keep this nation safe."
The Pentagon's reversal comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week titled "Enforcing the Hyde Amendment" that demanded agencies "end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion." The memo from the Defense Travel Management Office cites Trump's executive order as the reason the travel reimbursement policy was repealed.
The Hyde amendment is a rider in annual spending bills passed by Congress that prevents certain federal funds from being used for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or where the mother's life is in danger from the pregnancy. The Biden administration maintained the Pentagon travel reimbursement policy did not violate the Hyde amendment since the funding wasn't being directly used for abortions.
The policy, which required service members to submit a doctor's note certifying the travel was for reproductive health care, was rarely used in its two years of existence.
As of March 2024, the first and last time the Pentagon provided data on the policy, it had been used 12 times and cost the department $44,791. The Pentagon did not track how many service members used the policy or the type of health care they received -- meaning it is impossible to know whether, for example, a couple of service members used the policy several times for fertility treatments that require multiple doctor visits or a dozen service members used the policy one time each to get abortions.
Perhaps the biggest effect of the policy was that it spurred Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to launch an 11-month blockade against senior military promotions that caused chaos and vacancies up and down the chain of command.
Tuberville eventually relented on his blockade without winning any concessions from the Biden administration after some Republican senators appeared ready to side with Democrats to circumvent Tuberville to approve the stalled military promotions.
On Friday, Tuberville took a victory lap.
"I took a lot of heat when I stood alone for nearly a year in holding senior Pentagon promotions over this -- but as of today, it was all worth it," he said in a statement. "Thank God common sense has been restored to our military under President Trump's leadership."
While the Pentagon has not offered detailed comments on the repeal of the policy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to Tuberville on social media, telling him, "Thank you for your leadership, Coach."
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