Military members gain abortion access without commander approval or disclosure
H.R. 1742 — Access to Reproductive Care for Servicemembers Act · Filed by Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) · 80 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 27, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires the Department of Defense to grant leave (time off) to military members and their dependents seeking abortion or fertility care not covered by military health insurance, and to reimburse travel and lodging costs when such care is unavailable nearby. It also prohibits commanders from requiring disclosure of the specific procedure, punishing the member, or denying leave based on personal beliefs about reproductive health.
Why we flagged it
The bill's functional purpose is to protect military members' access to reproductive health care and shield them from retaliation by their chain of command. It is a personnel/benefits measure framed as a health equity and military readiness issue, not a general abortion-access bill.
What the text implies
- The bill may create tension between military command structure and individual privacy rights, requiring commanders to approve leave without knowing the reason—a departure from typical military transparency norms.
- Reimbursement of travel and lodging costs for out-of-state reproductive care could create significant budget implications for the DoD, particularly if many members are stationed in abortion-restrictive states.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Reproductive health care providers (abortion clinics, fertility clinics); Travel and hospitality services (hotels, airlines, meal services) in states with accessible reproduc