Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth from Illinois at the U.S. Capitol with her newborn daughter in 2018. Duckworth, a veteran, used in vitro fertilization to grow her family after experiencing fertility problems that doctors said stemmed from service-related injuries. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump has said he supports mandating that either the government or insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization. At the same time, the Republican Party has voted against bills that would protect IVF for all Americans, including bolstering access for service members and veterans, who face restrictions on fertility care.
“What we’re going to do is for people that are using IVF, which is fertilization, we are, government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to get or mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great,” Trump said in August during a town hall with former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a veteran and new Republican who has discussed her struggles with fertility, Wisconsin Examiner reported.
But in June and September, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a bill sponsored by Democrats that would have secured protections for IVF and related fertility treatments, our D.C. Bureau reported. (Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine supported the measure.)
Introduced in June by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the Right to IVF Act would have codified the right to fertility treatments and superseded state laws that interfere with care. Duckworth’s bill would have specifically boosted fertility care for service members and veterans, too.
“It allows our military men and women, prior to a deployment into a combat zone, to preserve and freeze their genetic material; so that should they come home with injuries that result in them becoming infertile, they will have already preserved their genetic material so that they can, themselves, start those beautiful families they wanted,” said Duckworth, a veteran who had her children with the help of IVF.
The measure would have ensured that fertility treatments for military members and veterans would be provided without discrimination based on sex, gender, infertility diagnosis or marital status.
Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs did not allow unmarried service members, veterans and those in same-sex marriages to access IVF at their health care facilities until expanding coverage this spring. The departments also expanded IVF services to members of the military and veterans who are unable to produce their sperm or eggs — this means donor eggs, sperm and embryos can be covered. Officials made this change after the New York City Chapter of the National Organization of Women sued over the policies last year.
But only current or former members of the military whose infertility stemmed from a service-related injury or condition can access certain treatments through TRICARE — the government-funded health care program for active-duty military members, their families and some veterans — or the VA.
Any active-duty service member seeking IVF, intrauterine insemination or other assisted reproductive technology services can access care at qualified military hospitals, but less than 10 of the centers across the country offer fertility treatments.