Abortion Access in the Military

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Madam Speaker, as a former servicewoman and a veteran myself, I rise today in support of our current and future servicewomen and their fundamental freedoms.

The Dobbs decision has already had a devastating effect on women across this country. According to a recent Rand study, 37 percent of servicewomen who were pregnant within a year of the study had an unintended pregnancy.

Now, nearly half of all Active-Duty servicewomen live in States that have severely curtailed abortion access, and this is devastating, of course.

Access to abortion care is essential to a woman's health, and it is central to her economic and social well-being. Servicewomen who live in States that have banned or restricted abortion now must incur the expenses that are necessary to travel to receive medical care, and they must now go to their commands to ask for permission to travel.

Their military personnel records are automatically updated in a system showing that they are pregnant. Pregnant servicewomen are afforded no medical privacy, and they face the knowledge that their colleagues and their commanders will know if they have to travel to seek an abortion.

With this vital healthcare out of reach for some and far too difficult to access for others, the consequences are widespread and tangible, not just to women's lives, but to this Nation.

Our military readiness, our retention, and our recruitment are all in jeopardy. Our servicemembers put their lives on the line every day defending our freedoms, and now we must clearly defend theirs.

For many, military service is not only a call to serve a purpose greater than themselves, but it is also, frankly, a path to economic stability and to educational opportunities.

To those who say that this is a theoretical argument, let me tell you the story of a fellow airwoman. Air Force Major Theresa Mozzillo, from our Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, just reached the milestone of 20 years of military service. Her promotion to Lieutenant Colonel is in just a couple of months, and I want to extend my gratitude and congratulations on her reaching this tremendous milestone.

As a result of the Dobbs decision, she bravely came forward and shared this with us. When she was a junior enlisted servicemember, making only $550 every 2 weeks and living in the dorms, she had an abortion. She was 21 years old and joined the Air Force for the economic and educational opportunities it provided, like many people do.

Safe and legal access to abortion allowed her to continue her military service and training commitments without disruption. This decision to utilize vital reproductive healthcare helped her to establish a dedicated career in our military and to serve this great Nation. A decision that today might no longer be hers to make. A decision that will no longer be available to the 84,000 servicewomen and thousands of spouses and military family members who live in States where safe access to abortion is now illegal or severely restricted.

Today, over 42 percent of the military is comprised of our most junior servicemembers. Today, most junior enlisted servicemembers make a little over $2,000 a month. Can you imagine being forced to become a parent when you only make a little over $2,000 a month, live in a dormitory, with no economic support, no established housing, and likely no family nearby and looming military obligations as well?

As I mentioned, I am a very proud Air Force veteran, in fact, a third-generation member of the military. My military service was pivotal to my own personal and professional growth, and I rely on lessons I learned in Active-Duty service and as a child of an Active- Duty member every single day of my life.

We must ensure that women continue to have opportunities to serve in our military without losing control of their own bodies. We must ensure that every servicewoman is afforded the same privacy and bodily autonomy as her peers are. We must ensure that every servicewoman and military family member has safe and legal access to abortion care, regardless of where they are stationed.

The economic consequences of being forced to become a parent are, for many, insurmountable. Regardless of a woman's reason to end a pregnancy, we cannot simply abide by an environment where a servicewoman is given less bodily autonomy than her male counterparts are.

Women are a vital part of our military. In our renewed strategic environment, and with ongoing recruitment and retention challenges across the military, we simply cannot afford to discourage women from entering military service in service of this Nation.

We must remember that no one has the right to interfere with a person's ability to make decisions about their own health and their own well-being.

I ask my colleagues to stand with me and with many of us here on the dais today on behalf of our Nation's servicewomen.

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