# Plain Language Summary: Modification to Department of Defense Travel Authorities for Abortion-Related Expenses Act of 2023

This bill would allow the Department of Defense to cover travel costs for military members and their families who need to travel to get an abortion. Currently, the military has restrictions on using federal funds to pay for abortion services or related travel expenses. This bill would change that by giving the Department of Defense the authority to reimburse service members for travel to another state or location where they can access abortion care.

The practical impact is straightforward: if a military member is stationed in a state with strict abortion restrictions and wants to travel elsewhere for an abortion procedure, the military could pay for their plane ticket, gas, hotel, and other travel-related costs. This would apply to active duty service members, their spouses, and their dependents. Without this change, military families would have to pay these travel expenses out of their own pockets if they wanted to access abortion services in a different location.

This bill directly addresses a situation that became more common after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision that removed the federal constitutional right to abortion, allowing individual states to set their own abortion laws. Since military bases are located across the country in states with varying abortion restrictions, this bill would ensure that military families stationed in restrictive states have the same access to abortion services as civilians, without facing financial barriers to travel.

Modification to Department of Defense Travel Authorities for Abortion-Related Expenses Act of 2023

Ernst, Joni

Modification to Department of Defense Travel Authorities for Abortion-Related Expenses Act of 2023 This bill prohibits the Department of Defense (DOD) from providing certain funding related to abortion services. First, the bill terminates the DOD memorandum titled Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care (October 20, 2022). Such memo sets forth DOD policies and procedures in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Under the bill, DOD may not obligate or expend funds to carry out the objectives of the memo or any successor memo. Next, the bill prohibits DOD from providing any actual or necessary expenses of travel or transportation related to official travel for a member of the Armed Forces or a dependent of such a member who is seeking an abortion or any abortion-related service (except in the case of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger). The bill provides that limited access of a member of the Armed Forces or a dependent to an abortion or abortion-related services due to the member's duty location does not constitute an unusual, extraordinary, hardship, or emergency circumstance for which travel and transportation allowances may be provided (except in the case of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger). The bill also prohibits a member of the Armed Forces from taking convalescent leave or using an administrative absence for travel related to receiving an abortion or abortion-related service (except in the case of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger).