Bennet, Hickenlooper, Shaheen Introduce Invoice to Defend U.S. Service Members’ Entry to Protected Go away for Reproductive Well being Care Providers | Press Releases

Video of Bennet’s Remarks Final Night time HERE

Washington, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper joined U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to introduce the Defending Service Members and Navy Households’ Entry to Well being Care Act. This laws would codify the Division of Protection’s (DoD) February 2023 policy that ensures service members and their households can entry non-covered reproductive well being care, together with abortion providers and Assisted Reproductive Expertise like in vitro fertilization, whatever the state during which they’re stationed. After the Supreme Courtroom’s choice to overturn Roe v. Wade, 40 percent of energetic responsibility service ladies face restricted or no entry to reproductive care.

“American service members and their households deserve entry to protected reproductive well being care, irrespective of the place they’re stationed. As states proceed to move legal guidelines that prohibit abortion entry and threaten docs with lawsuits and jail time for offering abortion care, this invoice protects entry to reproductive care for many who are serving our nation and their households,” stated Bennet. “They signed as much as defend our rights and we have to defend theirs.”

“Our service members put their lives on the road for our freedom. Their freedom to entry reproductive well being care shouldn’t be restricted primarily based on the place they’re despatched to serve,” stated Hickenlooper.

“The onslaught of anti-women legal guidelines enacted throughout our nation because the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade have imperiled ladies’s entry to complete well being care providers, together with abortion. Amongst these most weak to those harmful legal guidelines are servicewomen and navy households, who don’t have any selection over the place they’re stationed and what state legal guidelines could govern ladies’s our bodies. That’s why it’s paramount that Congress act to enshrine present Division of Protection coverage to guard servicewomen and navy households and supply them essential go away for reproductive well being care providers,” stated Shaheen. “It’s shameful that Republicans have pushed Congress thus far – that we have to safeguard paid go away so navy personnel and their family members can hunt down the well being care they want. The assaults on ladies waged by Republicans are placing ladies’s lives in danger, and on this case, additionally compromising navy readiness. Servicewomen shouldn’t be put on this place within the first place. I’ll do all the pieces I can to mitigate the affect they might really feel from these excessive insurance policies and guarantee their well being and security comes first.”

In March, the senators urged Division of Protection (DoD) Secretary Lloyd Austin to deal with the elemental connection between our navy’s readiness and making certain that girls within the Armed Providers have entry to reproductive well being care. In that letter, the senators additionally known as for DoD to think about abortion entry in main personnel and basing selections.

Particularly, this invoice would:

• Enable service members to entry non-covered reproductive well being care via an administrative absence, to stop lack of accrued go away and with full pay;
• Enable a service member to accompany a partner or dependent who receives non-covered reproductive well being care via an administrative absence;
• Present a service member, or their dependent, entry to journey and transportation allowances to obtain non-covered reproductive well being care (this doesn’t embody fee for the reproductive care providers); and
• Make sure the safety of the privateness of the service member requesting administrative absence as a way to entry or accompany a partner or dependent accessing non-covered reproductive well being care.

Since March, Bennet has defended entry to reproductive well being take care of navy service members, and their households on 5 separate events – together with simply last week and last night.

The Defending Service Members and Navy Households’ Entry to Well being Care Act is supported by the Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America, the Nationwide Ladies’s Regulation Middle, VoteVets, the Middle for Reproductive Rights, the Service Ladies’s Motion Community, Vet Voice Basis, Energy to Resolve, American School of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medication, and the Nationwide Partnership for Ladies and Households.

Along with Bennet, Hickenlooper, and Shaheen, the invoice is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Sick.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Dick Durbin (D-Sick.).

The textual content of the invoice is on the market HERE.