September 13th, 2012 - A Senate committee has approved providing fertility counseling and treatment, as well as adoption benefits, to veterans with traumatic injuries that affect their reproductive organs.The landmark policy change would cover artificial insemination and, if necessary, surrogacy so that service-connected wounds are not a barrier to having a family.
Benefits are aimed at the 1,800 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have suffered spinal cord injuries or devastating wounds, mostly from improvised explosive devices, to their reproductive organs.
Fertility treatments are included in S 3313, the Women Veterans and Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, passed by the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Sept. 12 by voice vote after extended debate over whether surrogacy should be covered.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the veterans’ committee chairwoman and chief sponsor of the bill, said including surrogacy as a covered medical treatment is the only way to ensure that a woman who suffers severe wounds to her reproductive organs would have benefits equal to a male veteran. “We cannot treat one veteran better than the next,” she said. read more>>>
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