A veteran’s advocacy group is preparing to push Congress to allow the Veterans Affairs Department to pay for fertility treatments for troops who cannot conceive children naturally due to battlefield injuries.
The Wounded Warrior Project will testify on Thursday with other veterans groups before a joint session of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees and is expected to make funding for in vitro fertilization for vets one of its top priorities.
Spinal cord, pelvic and genital injuries from roadside bomb blasts can make natural conception impossible.
“This is tragic for many reasons, but especially because, for so many wounded warriors, families are what drives reintegration into civilian life,” Ryan Kules, the combat stress recovery director at the Wounded Warrior Project, wrote in prepared testimony. “I have three children, one of whom is here in the audience today, and I can tell you that I would not be nearly as far along in my recovery process without their love, encouragement and support.”
Troops who have suffered these injuries, and their families, sometimes have to go through several rounds of expensive in vitro fertilization, which can cost thousands of dollars.
The Defense Department covers fertility treatments for active-duty troops who have been injured, but the VA does not cover the same benefit for vets because of “unclear statutory language,” according to testimony from Wounded Warrior Project.
“Our belief is that veterans who return from combat zones with wounds that steal their ability to have children should have the same opportunities provided by the DoD,” a press release from the group says.
Kules in testimony said the VA requires “congressional direction” to be able to cover these costs, which veterans now must pay themselves.
“Like many other veterans service organizations present here today, then, we ask you to clearly and unambiguously authorize VA to provide in vitro fertilization, and we look forward to working with you however we can to achieve this result,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Congress has wrestled with the issue of paying for in vitro fertilization for injured troops. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., pulled a bill last year that would have paid for injured troops’ fertility treatments after Republicans added amendments that would have prohibited the VA from working Planned Parenthood, the Military Times reported.
“I am so disappointed — and truly angry that Republicans on the Veterans Affairs Committee decided yesterday to leap at the opportunity to pander to their base, to poison the well with the political cable news battle of the day, and turn their backs on wounded veterans,” Murray said in July.
Previous efforts to cover fertility costs, often lead by Murray, who has been a long-time supporter of the issue, have also failed.
As far back as 2012, Murray was working to raise the issue on Capitol Hill, saying that it was “time for America to do the right thing for these men and women.”
