Whether one agrees or disagrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade, the high court’s ruling raises new questions and issues for the Department of Defense, individual service members, and their families. Service members do not get to choose where they will be stationed, so putting abortion laws back at the individual state level will have widely different impacts on them depending on where they are based.
About 110,000 active-duty service members are stationed in Texas, 37,500 in South Carolina, 20,000 in Oklahoma, 17,000 in Missouri, and almost 9,000 in Alabama, not including their family members. These states have some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
Recruitment and retention may be affected by this Supreme Court ruling, as the military cannot cover medical or travel costs for abortion outside of the conditions set by the Hyde Amendment, which restricts use of federal funds to pay for abortions outside of cases involving rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s life.
All the services are facing recruitment and retention shortfalls in the current tight labor market, partly caused by competitive benefits and bonuses offered by the private sector. Some corporations in the private sector have already changed their policies to reflect coverage of travel for non-life threatening medical procedures, including traveling to a state where abortion is legal to see a provider. The military’s lack of such coverage could further harm its recruiting and retention efforts.
A pass in review ceremony at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois. Credit: U.S. Navy (Scott A. Thornbloom)
Because the military cannot pay for travel or medical costs for abortions outside of the Hyde Amendment conditions, service members will be entirely financially responsible should they need one. If a service member is stationed in a state where abortion is illegal and they or their spouse or partner become pregnant and want an abortion, they will have to request leave and travel to a state where abortion is legal–paying out of pocket for the travel and abortion.
For some service members, the cost of travel and an abortion could be unaffordable. In a 2013 survey, DoD estimated that about 2 percent of military personnel received assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and nine percent received support from Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and/or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). For some military members and their families, paying out of pocket to travel to another state to have an abortion might not be feasible.
Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. Federal law restricts the military’s use of federal funds to pay for abortions outside of specific parameters. Credit: U.S. Navy (Michael O’Day)
Another point to consider are the uneven impacts this ruling could have on each of the military services and on the individual specialties or career paths within them. Different career paths send service members to specific states for school or work. For example, every enlisted Navy nuclear operator spends the first two years of their career in South Carolina for training. Navy and Marine Corps flight school students spend their first three years between Florida and Texas. Most active-duty Marines are stationed in North Carolina and California. Recruitment for some communities or branches may become an issue if people factor state abortion laws into whether they want to be in a specific community. Retention could become an issue for some communities as well and lead to a shortage of personnel. Other communities might even see an increase in personnel.
Going forward, the military healthcare system should continue to offer contraceptives and promote sexual health education to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. In 2017, Ibis Reproductive Health concluded from the 2011 Survey of Health Related Behaviors that 7 percent of servicewomen ages 18–44 had an unintended pregnancy in the previous year, compared with 4.5 percent of U.S. civilian women of reproductive age. A lack of education and counseling on birth control options could be contributing to the higher rate of unintended pregnancy in the Armed Forces, which is something the military can work to fix.
As important as promoting sexual health education and contraceptives, the DoD should investigate how the Supreme Court ruling and the Hyde Amendment will impact troop readiness. Female service members who become pregnant become non-deployable during their pregnancy. For the Navy, that point is no later than the 20th week of pregnancy. Those who have an unwanted pregnancy and cannot get an abortion in the state in which they are stationed could have an impact their unit’s readiness when they detach and must be replaced.
Regardless of which side a person takes on this divisive issue, it is important to understand the military impacts it will have. Variations in state laws put service members and their families in a position they had not faced before the June Supreme Court ruling. Service members now have to be aware of their options in each new state in which they are stationed. The DoD needs to study how manning will be affected and continue to promote sexual health education and contraceptives. Congress, as it weighs whether to take up the issue legislatively, needs to acknowledge that this court ruling may influence military recruiting, retention, readiness, and healthcare.
