Military members gain explicit right to leave for abortion and fertility care
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 that is not covered by military health insurance, without requiring them to disclose the reason to their commander. It also requires the military to reimburse travel, meals, and lodging costs when such care is not available nearby, and prohibits any punishment or retaliation for requesting or taking such leave.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a leave and reimbursement policy for military members seeking reproductive care. It is not a commemorative, tax, or appropriations measure—it is a personnel benefits and health-access statute.
What the text implies
- The bill does not amend the underlying military health insurance coverage rules (section 1093 of title 10); it creates a workaround via leave approval and reimbursement, leaving the question of whether DoD will eventually expand insurance coverage unaddressed.
- Reimbursement for travel and lodging may create administrative burden on military finance systems and could face implementation delays if DoD lacks clear guidance on cost-approval procedures.
- The prohibition on 'adverse action' is broad but enforcement depends on service members' willingness to report retaliation and DoD's internal investigation capacity; no private right of action or external enforcement mechanism is specified.
- The bill applies to 'dependents' of service members but does not clarify whether this includes adult dependents, spouses, or only minor children—a gap that could affect eligibility interpretation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Military members and their dependents gain explicit legal protection to access reproductive care without commander interference, retaliation, or forced disclosure—a direct expansion of bodily autonomy and health access for a population with limited geographic mobility. The bill addresses documented barriers (state bans, geographic isolation, financial hardship) that disproportionately affect junior enlisted members and service members in rural or overseas locations.
Named in the bill
Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense, Defense Health Agency, Armed Forces, Military commanders
Where it stands
80 cosponsors: 80 Democrats.
- Feb 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 27, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 105 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mikie Sherrill, the sponsor, reported $-3,200 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Council of Jewish Women — $20,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,494 characters) on May 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Military members gain explicit right to leave for abortion and fertility care” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1742 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.