WASHINGTON — A day-old Pentagon policy on female servicemembers’ access to reproductive health services is already triggering election-year sniping among lawmakers and figures to loom large in forthcoming legislation.
The new guidance is a reaction to the June Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to restrict most abortions. More than a dozen states have done so. As a result, some women in the military need to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion.
In a Thursday memo to U.S. military brass and civilian Defense Department leaders, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered a number of actions to safeguard servicemembers’ access to reproductive health services.
