Service members who want to use administrative leave or receive a travel allowance to get an abortion or fertility treatment will not have to disclose the specific reason they’re using the benefits, the Pentagon confirmed to Military.com on Friday.
Service members will have to write in documentation that their request is for a “non-covered reproductive health care need,” Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman told Military.com. The leave, an administrative absence, does not count against regular leave allowances.
To have travel and transportation costs paid for, service members will have to submit a note from a Defense Department health care provider or a licensed non-Defense Department health care provider to the travel-approving official that says the travel is needed for non-covered reproductive health care, Schwegman added.
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Under policies announced last week, service members can get up to 21 days of administrative leave and transportation costs paid for in order to get an abortion that may only be available far from where they are stationed.
By law, the Pentagon can conduct or cover an abortion only if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or the life of mother is at risk by carrying the pregnancy.
The leave and allowances are also available to service members who need fertility treatments that are not…
