MRM Praises Senate for Acting to Lift Ban on VA providing IVF Care to Wounded Veterans

On May 19th, the U.S. Senate voted 89-8 to pass HR Bill 2577, which included a provision giving the Department of VA the funds to lift the ban on VA providing IVF care to wounded veterans. This bill, if passing both houses and signed by President Obama, will begin providing IVF services to wounded veterans in need of IVF therapy. Senator Patty Murray, the champion of the IVF measure spoke on the Senate floor earlier today.

This is a big step, but not the final step!

The House also today approved its version of the Military Construction-VA funding measure, HR 4974. The House version does not contain the provision allowing coverage of IVF, so we all need to continue working to ensure that when the House and Senate work to reconcile differences between the two measures, the IVF provision remains intact.

We call on our community to connect with their Members of Congress in support of the IVF provision. For now, we applaud this monumental bipartisan vote in the Senate.

Here’s background on the issue:
Source: The Veterans Law and Benefits Blog sponsored by William & Mary Law School.

What is the current problem?
• Veterans are entitled to medical benefits necessary to restore the quality of life that has been lost due to illness or injury during service. (reference: 38 C.F.R. § 17.38 (2011)).
• But this promise rings empty for veterans with service-connected reproductive injuries hoping to start a family. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the few procedures not covered by the VA, joining elective cosmetic surgery and spa memberships as one of the handful of explicit exclusions designated by federal regulation.

When did the problem start?
The VA’s ban was first adopted nearly a quarter of a century ago, when IVF was still a new treatment. As fertility technology has improved and become more mainstream, many of the safety concerns behind the initial ban no longer hold true.

Why do injured veterans need IVF care?

Due to the nature of current military conflicts, particularly combatants’ reliance on improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the need for IVF assistance is greater than ever before. Even if soldiers manage to avoid major external injuries, the force of IED blasts can damage testicles’ sperm production and the fallopian tubes. Between 2000 and 2013, nearly 2,000 service members suffered debilitating injuries to their genitals. An additional 307,000 experienced brain injuries that can render sex physically impossible or destroy one’s sex drive. Thousands more have received spinal-cord injuries with a similar impact on reproductive ability. (Reference: Patrica Kime, D.C. Conference to Focus War Wounds’ Impact on Sex and Intimacy, Military Times (Dec. 8, 2014),

Who is at risk?

With nearly half of all enlisted personnel under the age of twenty-six, many of these injuries strike veterans in their reproductive prime. The sudden inability to conceive can be a psychologically devastating blow for veterans already struggling to adapt to life-altering combat injuries. This may be further compounded by marital strain as spouses cope with the realization that they may not be able to have the family they’d envisioned. (Reference: Patricia Kime, Military’s New Fertility Benefit Will Let Troops Freeze Their Sperm and Eggs, Military Times (Jan. 29, 2016),

Wounded Active-Duty vs. Wounded Veterans: IVF benefits differ.

Unlike veterans, active-duty service members returning home from combat with genital injuries currently have access to IVF. However, they must undergo the treatments before separating from the military. For couples navigating the initial stages of recovery, it is often survival—not family planning—that is the priority. As a result, although the Department of Defense began covering IVF for wounded soldiers in 2012, only twenty service members have taken advantage of the policy. By the time a couple is ready to try for children, the veteran has likely already been discharged and had his health care transferred to the VA. The narrow window to receive IVF treatment may close before a couple is even aware that a disparity between Tricare and VA coverage exists. (Reference: On Veterans Day Please Urge your Member of Congress to Co-Sponsor HR 2257, Ending the Ban on IVF at the Dept. of VA, Am. Soc’y for Reproductive Med. (last visited Feb. 28, 2016),

Our MRM team echoes the statement released by Owen K. Davis, President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

…The ban on the Department of VA covering IVF services is outdated and cruel. By voting to lift the ban on IVF, the Senate has moved our country one step closer to fulfilling its promise to take care of our fighting men and women when they return home. Modern medicine cannot undo their wounds, but by lifting the ban on IVF treatments, we can at least deploy our best tools to help them.