Reps. Moulton and Escobar Urge Department of Defense to Clarify Abortion Policy
Salem, Mass.— Congressman Seth Moulton and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar are urging the Department of Defense to clarify its policies on access and coverage for abortion services, and to define its plan to protect service members and military medical providers in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Since the Dobbs decision, nearly half a million service members stationed domestically alone are at risk of losing access to abortion in the states where their military installations are based. These service members and their dependents must travel across state lines, and sometimes across multiple states, in order to access abortion care.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Moulton and Escobar write: "We are deeply alarmed at the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, not only because it is unpopular with both the American public and Americans who are of-age to serve in the military, but because it will have a profound impact on the health, privacy, and capability of our service members, their dependents, and military medical providers.”
The letter also urges the DoD to “ensure medical personnel are empowered to prescribe convalescent leave—without disclosing the medical procedure to be performed—to all service members seeking off-base and/or out-of-state abortion care and to ensure DoD medical personnel deem all such convalescent leave requests to be medically necessary.”