Friends —
If the Supreme Court draft decision on Roe v. Wade becomes law, the impact on people serving in the military would be disastrous.
And some experts believe it could harm military readiness.
Consider the facts:
First, more than half of all states are poised to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. States like Texas, Georgia and Florida, which are home to hundreds of thousands of troops and military families on some of the nation’s largest military bases.
Now consider that most active duty troops and military families don’t get to choose where they are stationed — meaning that safe, legal abortion will be inaccessible to them if this decision becomes law.
Many of the state abortion bans don’t make an exception for rape or incest, and restrict the kinds of emergency procedures that are necessary to save the life of the mother in a worst-case scenario.
An existing federal rule known as the Hyde Amendment already makes it illegal for abortions to be performed at military medical facilities. And Tricare, the health insurance provided to troops and military families, doesn’t cover the cost of abortions at private clinics, either.
So, now you have hundreds of thousands of troops and military families, many of whom are not paid a ton of money, who will have to cover the cost of abortion on their own, not to mention cover the cost of travel out of state, a stay at a hotel and any additional recovery costs.
To top it off, active duty troops also have to get permission from their chain of command to leave in order to obtain this extremely private medical procedure.
The Supreme Court wants to force our servicemembers and their family members to carry unwanted or unsafe pregnancies to term.
Servicemembers cannot deploy while pregnant, which harms military readiness. A servicemember who becomes pregnant against their will and cannot obtain a safe, legal abortion, will not be able to deploy -- taking them out of the fight.
So what is someone in the military with an unwanted pregnancy to do?
The point is, it should be a private choice made by a person and their doctor. Not their Commanding Officer, Justice Alito, or anyone else.
Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to be elevating the voices of veterans who have faced this very choice personally.
We hope you’ll help us make sure their voices are heard.
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Thank you,
The team at VoteVets
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