Sad. From Military.com:
The Army has set new policies making it more difficult for units to deny soldiers’ requests to take leave to receive reproductive care including abortions, according to a force-wide memo.
The strict new policies strip company-level commanders, usually a captain, of any authority to deny a soldier’s request to take leave and travel for care, and move that authority to the brigade level, typically a colonel much higher up in the soldier’s chain of command.
That brigade commander is also required to receive legal counsel if they deny the soldier’s request, according to the policies set earlier this month.
The move follows new Pentagon rules last year for all the service branches allowing up to three weeks of administrative leave and transportation expenses for troops who seek abortion care when the life of the mother is at risk and for other fertility treatments, for themselves or when traveling with a spouse seeking that care.
That earlier policy came after a Supreme Court decision that allowed states to ban or curtail abortion services.
In the new Army policy, the service also included a provision for commanders who morally object to the treatment a soldier is seeking. In that scenario, the approval will move on to the next level in the chain of command — but the policy stipulates that the request “will not be delayed.”
Making decisions on approvals or disapprovals will not take more than a week, the policy states.
That denial authority goes far beyond the Pentagon’s initial guidance, which left the responsibility to low-level, and often young, commanders. Moving the denial authority higher in the chain of command presumably makes it much less likely a soldier’s request would be denied, adding burdensome bureaucratic layers if commanders say no.
The Pentagon’s reproductive care policy was a reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. . . . . (read more)
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