The U.S. Department of Defense plans to revamp its assisted reproductive technologies (ART) policies to ensure service members’ taxpayer-funded benefits cover the creation of motherless and fatherless children via in vitro fertilization for single and same-sex soldiers.
The policy change stems from a lawsuit brought by an abortion and transgender activist group against both the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs over their requirements for ART like in vitro fertilization, egg and sperm retrieval, and egg and sperm cryopreservation.
DOD and VA rules previously limited morally and ethically prohibited the reproductive procedures funded by hardworking Americans’ dollars to service members and veterans who were married to someone of the opposite sex, could use their own gametes for any ART procedures, and had received an infertility diagnosis linked to injury, illness, or a service-connected disability.
When the National Organization for Women’s New York City Chapter (NOW-NYC), represented by Yale law students, filed a federal complaint over the “exclusionary coverage limitations” in August 2023, however, the Pentagon pivoted. NOW-NYC initially alleged the DOD and VA’s policies are “arbitrary,” unconstitutional, and violate the Affordable Care Act because they don’t force taxpayers to pay for overcoming natural biological limits for soldiers who are LGBT, unmarried, or want to buy sperm or eggs.
The DOD seemingly agreed with this characterization when it signaled to the court last week that, while it planned to keep the injury or illness infertility requirement, it would overhaul its TRICARE policies so soldiers no longer have to be married or of opposite sexes to get taxpayer-paid IVF and sperm and egg buying. The modifications are expected to be solidified in a memorandum by the end of February.
The VA, which defines “infertility” as a male and female’s inability to reproduce on their own after 12 months of trying, did not signal any changes to its ART policies yet. That didn’t stop NOW-NYC from celebrating the DOD’s shift as a “big win” and the “first step” towards future legal action that would expand taxpayer-funded ART even further.
“We will continue to challenge DoD and VA to remove all discriminatory barriers so that each and every service member and veteran who needs this reproductive care can access it,” NOW-NYC Executive Director Sonia Ossorio warned in a statement.
This isn’t the first time activists have used lawsuits to force taxpayers to help people who choose naturally sterile sexual encounters manufacture children purposefully separated from their biological parents. A gay couple in New York sued the city government in 2022 because they did not meet the city’s definition of infertile. Even though both plaintiffs were male and biologically incapable of naturally procreating, they claimed they met the medical definition of infertile and were entitled to insurance benefits to use a purchased egg and a rented womb to buy children.
