Biden admin to fund out-of-state abortions for service members

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed a memo on Thursday saying that the Department of Defense will cover financial expenses for its members to travel out-of-state to get an abortion.

According to Task & Purpose, Austin's memo said, "I am committed to the Department taking all appropriate action, within its authority and consistent with applicable federal law, as soon as possible to ensure that our service members and their families can access reproductive health care and our health care providers can operate effectively." 

The new directive applies to members of the DOD who may be stationed in states that have pro-life legislation and provides methods to get around those laws. Now taxpayer dollars will go towards "travel and transportation allowances, as appropriate and consistent with applicable federal law and operational requirements" for service members and their dependents "to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a service member’s permanent duty station."

Prior to Austin's memo, the DOD's policy stated that members could use sick or personal leave and expense the travel on their own to get an out-of-state abortion.

Some of the changes in the memo include extending the time a service member is required to tell their commanding officer about pregnancy and that a dependent will have the DOD pay for out-of-state abortion expenses as well. 

In a 6-3 decision stemming from the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court ruled on June 24 that "The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives." The Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade advanced many states' legislation that had almost entirely banned the practice but had been mired in litigation before the ruling.