Alt causes in the squo kill readiness – overturning Roe v Wade outweighs any of their internal links

The Dobbs v. Jackson (U.S. Supreme Court, 2022) decision overturned the provision of a constitutional right to an abortion. Since the decision, there has been much discussion about the effects of the ruling on American soci-ety, and especially the disproportionate effect that it will have on women (Ahmed, 2022; Barbaro, 2022, Fawcett, 2022; Hesse, 2022; Leonhardt, 2022).1Women in the military, who are charged with defending and protecting the United States, are an important group that deserve special consideration in this discussion. For the military, the Dobbs ruling is a matter of national security. Women are an integral part of the military. They comprise 17.2 percent of the active-duty force. They are the fastest-growing subpopulation in the military (U.S. Department of Defense [DoD], 2022). For the past several years, the military ser-vices have been deliberately recruiting women, both to fulfill specialized positions and discrete operational needs and because they represent a higher percentage of the recruitable population than their male counterparts (Hunter, 2021; Office of People Analytics, 2018). Although there has been focus on allowing women to serve KYLEANNE M. HUNTER, SARAH O. MEADOWS, REBECCA L. COLLINS, ISABELLE GONZÁLEZHow the Dobbs Decision Could Affect U.S. National SecurityCORPORATIONPerspectiveEXPERT INSIGHTS ON A TIMELY POLICY ISSUESeptember 2022 2in previously closed positions (such as infantry), women have been and are serving in other roles that also are essen-tial to our military readiness. Women in the military play a significant role in health care occupations, electrical and mechanical equipment repair, functional support (such as payroll and supply), and administrative roles. These occu-pations are foundational for the effective functioning of the military (Brooks and Stanley, 2007; Meadows et al., 2022, Table 2.4). Women also are essential to the DoD civilian work-force. Women make up nearly one-third of the civilian workforce and hold positions from child care providers to senior executives. In the civilian sector, women play a sig-nificant role in administrative and educational roles (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2022), which are essen-tial for the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military. The recent Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jack-son will limit service women’s and DoD civilian women’s access to the full scope of reproductive health care and will have a direct effect on the health of these critical popula-tions. Understanding the scope of these effects is essential to understanding how Dobbs could affect military readi-ness and therefore national security. Unfortunately, data in this area are limited. For example, there is no single source that tells us how many military service members or DoD civilians have sought abortions as part of their reproduc-tive health care. To better understand the size and scope of the impact of the Dobbs decision on these important populations, we integrate data from several sources, includ-ing publicly available data and two representative surveys of active-duty service members developed and adminis-tered by the RAND Corporation for DoD. We estimate how many military-employed women’s reproductive health options have been or might soon be limited, and we iden-tify force readiness–related concerns, such as effects on the military health care, education, and child care systems, as well as on military recruiting and retention. Abortion Care in the Department of DefenseSince well before Dobbs, 10 U.S.C. 1093, a Hyde Amend-ment–like statute,2 prohibited TRICARE, DoD’s health care program, from paying for abortions with three excep-tions: When the life of the mother would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, if the pregnancy arises from rape, or if the pregnancy arises from incest (we refer to these cases as covered abortions) (Burrelli, 2013). The statute also prohibits DoD facilities, including military hospitals and clinics (military treatment facilities, also known as MTFs) from performing noncovered abortions. Insurance as part of the Federal Employee Health Ben-efits (FEHB) Program, which would include DoD federal AbbreviationsDHAPIDefense Health Agency Procedural InstructionDoDU.S. Department of DefenseFEHBFederal Employee Health BenefitsHRBSDoD Survey of Health-Related BehaviorsIUDintrauterine deviceMHSMilitary Health SystemMTFmilitary treatment facilityPHAperiodic health assessmentWRHSDoD Women’s Reproductive Health Survey bro