Sponsors (20)
The bill substantially expands fertility and family‑building benefits for service members and veterans — improving equitable access and preserving reproductive options — but raises federal costs and creates implementation, legal, and access-limit tradeoffs that may delay or complicate who can benefit and how.
Active-duty service members, veterans, and their partners/spouses gain covered access to in vitro fertilization (including up to three oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers) and related counseling, increasing chances to have biologically related children.
Service members and veterans who cannot provide their own gametes can have reasonable costs for donated sperm, eggs, or embryos reimbursed (and VA may cover related travel/incidental expenses), reducing out-of-pocket expenses for those who need donor material.
Fertility preservation (retrieval and cryopreservation) is required timely after injuries/illnesses and before hazardous deployments for service members, preserving reproductive options for injured or at-risk personnel.
All taxpayers and defense/VA health program beneficiaries face higher federal healthcare costs because DoD and VA will cover expanded fertility services, which could require additional appropriations or divert funding from other priorities.
Service members and veterans may encounter new legal, ethical, and administrative complexity (consent, custody, cross-jurisdictional surrogacy and donor issues) as DoD/VA implement donor gamete and embryo procurement and use.
Former service members may face costs and logistical burdens when storage/transfer obligations end one year after separation, forcing them to assume storage payments or arrange private transfer quickly.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires DoD and VA to provide nondiscriminatory fertility treatment, counseling, and preservation (including IVF limits and donor reimbursement) to eligible service members, veterans, and related partners/surrogates.
Official title: To improve the reproductive assistance provided by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to certain members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and their spouses or partners, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 1, 2025 by Richard Ray Larsen · Last progress August 1, 2025
Requires the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide fertility treatment and counseling to eligible service members, veterans, and their spouses, partners, gamete donors, or gestational surrogates without discrimination based on sex, sex characteristics, gender identity, sexual orientation, infertility diagnosis, or marital status. For IVF, up to three completed oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers may be provided; the bill also permits use of donated gametes or embryos and requires DoD procedures to preserve reproductive material when injury or illness on active duty may threaten fertility. Sets consent and documentation rules (including adding questions to advance medical directives and military testamentary instruments), requires outreach and provider training at VA, permits VA copayments where applicable, and allows reimbursement of reasonable costs for procuring donated reproductive material and related travel expenses.