Defense Department to Provide Fertility Treatments to Same-Sex, Unmarried Couples

We applaud the Department of Defense for working to expand access to fertility treatments for service members,” Ossorio said in a statement. “We are overjoyed for our military members who may only now qualify for coverage and desperately need this care to build a family.”

The Pentagon’s previous policy only offered assistance to married couples whose infertility was connected to an injury.

“DoD is in the process of determining the exact contours of these policy changes and expects to finalize and share with plaintiff a signed memorandum by the end of February 2024 that formally directs the changes and provides further details on their scope,” wrote Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The move comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Women, the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic and the National Veterans Legal Services Program, who alleged that the policy discriminated against single troops and same-sex couples.

While the US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has not officially announced a policy change, Military.com wrote that Sonia Ossorio, executive director of NOW NYC, celebrated the plan.

We applaud the Department of Defense for working to expand access to fertility treatments for service members,” Ossorio said. “We are overjoyed for our military members who may only now qualify for coverage and desperately need this care to build a family.”

A group of transgender veterans are also suing the VA to have the government provide sex-change surgeries.

On Thursday, the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) filed a federal lawsuit against the VA, seeking an “order that the VA act on TAVA’s 2016 rulemaking petition for gender-confirmation surgery,” according to a press release.

“Nearly eight years since TAVA submitted its rulemaking petition asking the VA to provide this essential and lifesaving medical care, and more than two years since Secretary McDonough pledged to make this care available, the VA has failed to act,” the release says. “The VA’s delay endangers the health and well-being of many of the nation’s 163,000 transgender veterans. It also violates the VA’s legal obligations.”