To improve the reproductive assistance provided by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to certain members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and their spouses or partners, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Veteran Families Health Services Act of 2025 establishes comprehensive fertility treatment and reproductive assistance programs for both active-duty military members (through the Department of Defense) and veterans (through the Department of Veterans Affairs). Title I requires the Secretary of Defense to provide fertility treatment, counseling, cryopreservation of reproductive genetic material, and fertility preservation procedures for service members whose fertility may be jeopardized by injuries, illnesses, or hazardous duty assignments. Title II amends title 38 of the U.S. Code to add a new section requiring the VA to furnish fertility treatment and counseling to enrolled veterans and their spouses, partners, or gestational surrogates. It also creates a new VA adoption assistance program for covered veterans and mandates collaborative research on reproductive health. Both titles require treatment to be provided without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, infertility diagnosis, or marital status.
Who Benefits and How
Active-duty service members benefit from fertility treatment, counseling, and cryopreservation services provided at no cost, including before deployments to combat zones or hazardous assignments (such as those involving PFAS exposure). Veterans enrolled in VA healthcare gain access to IVF (up to three oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers), artificial insemination, genetic testing, gamete donation, and fertility medications. Spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates of both service members and veterans are eligible for these services. Veterans also gain access to a new adoption assistance program capped at the cost of three adoptions. Fertility clinics, reproductive medicine providers, and cryopreservation facilities stand to see increased demand from government-funded patients. Gamete donors and surrogacy agencies may see increased business. Research institutions working on reproductive health benefit from mandated collaborative research funding between DoD, VA, and HHS.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Defense bears the cost of fertility treatment, cryopreservation, and storage for active-duty members (free for one year post-separation). The Department of Veterans Affairs bears the cost of fertility treatment, adoption assistance, outreach programs, and research facilitation for veterans. Covered veterans who have copayment obligations for other VA services must pay applicable copayments for fertility treatment. After the one-year free period post-separation, individual service members bear the cost of continued cryopreservation and storage. Both DoD and VA must develop new regulations within two years, creating administrative and compliance burdens. VA must establish outreach and training programs. States lose the ability to apply their surrogacy laws to block VA-provided fertility services, as the bill explicitly overrides state surrogacy laws.
Key Provisions
- DoD must provide fertility treatment and counseling to service members, spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates (Sec. 102)
- Up to three completed oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers for both DoD and VA programs
- Fertility preservation procedures required for service members with fertility-threatening injuries or illnesses (Sec. 103)
- Free cryopreservation before combat deployment or hazardous duty, including PFAS exposure assignments (Sec. 104)
- Free cryopreservation and storage for one year post-separation, then transferred to member's cost (Sec. 104)
- DoD-VA coordination via memorandum of understanding for seamless transition from active duty to veteran status (Sec. 106)
- VA fertility treatment added to statutory definition of medical services in title 38 (Sec. 201)
- VA must furnish fertility treatment notwithstanding state surrogacy laws (Sec. 202)
- VA adoption assistance for covered veterans, capped at cost of three adoptions (Sec. 203)
- Mandated collaborative reproductive health research between VA, DoD, and HHS (Sec. 205)
- Regulations required within two years of enactment for both DoD and VA programs (Secs. 107, 206)
- All services provided without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Establishes comprehensive fertility treatment, reproductive assistance, and adoption support programs for active-duty service members (through DoD) and veterans (through VA), including IVF, cryopreservation, gamete donation, gestational surrogacy support, and collaborative reproductive health research, all provided without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status.
Key Policy Areas
Defense, Healthcare, Veterans Affairs
Primary Purpose
Establishes comprehensive fertility treatment, reproductive assistance, and adoption support programs for active-duty service members (through DoD) and veterans (through VA), including IVF, cryopreservation, gamete donation, gestational surrogacy support, and collaborative reproductive health research, all provided without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status.
Policy Domains
Title I — Department of Defense Matters
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Active-duty service members (fertility treatment, cryopreservation)
- Spouses and partners of service members
- Fertility clinics and reproductive medicine providers
- Cryopreservation and storage facilities
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Department of Defense (program costs, storage costs, regulation development)
- Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (establish injury preservation procedures)
- Service members post-separation (storage costs after one year)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Title II — Department of Veterans Affairs Matters
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Enrolled veterans (fertility treatment, adoption assistance)
- Spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates of veterans
- Fertility clinics and reproductive medicine providers
- Adoption agencies and services
- Reproductive health researchers
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Department of Veterans Affairs (program costs, outreach, regulation development)
- Covered veterans with copayment obligations
- States (surrogacy laws preempted for VA-provided services)
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMrs. Murray (for herself, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Booker, Mr. Schumer, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Cryopreservation and storage facilities, Fertility clinics and IVF providers, Fertility preservation service providers
Positive-direction: Cryopreservation and storage facilities, Fertility clinics and IVF providers, Fertility preservation service providers, Gamete donation agencies, Gamete donation agencies and surrogacy agencies, Private cryopreservation facilities, Reproductive health researchers
Negative-direction: Military medical facilities
Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, States with restrictive surrogacy laws
Active-duty service members, Active-duty service members deploying to combat zones, Active-duty service members with fertility-threatening injuries
Enrolled veterans, Enrolled veterans seeking to adopt, Veterans with reproductive health conditions
Spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates of service members, Spouses, partners, and gestational surrogates of veterans
Reproductive medicine pharmaceutical companies
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Defense
- "assistant_secretary"
- → Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- "secretary_of_hhs"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services (for research coordination)
- "secretary_of_defense"
- → Secretary of Defense (for research coordination)
Note: 'The Secretary' refers to Secretary of Defense in Title I (Secs. 101-107) but Secretary of Veterans Affairs in Title II (Secs. 201-206)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Has the meaning given in section 101(d)(1) of title 10, USC
Includes preservation of oocytes/sperm/embryos, artificial insemination (intravaginal, intracervical, intrauterine), ART including IVF, genetic testing of embryos, fertility medications, gamete donation, and other treatments as Secretary determines appropriate
A veteran enrolled in the system of annual patient enrollment established under section 1705(a) of title 38
Has the meaning given the term 'armed forces' in section 101(a)(4) of title 10, USC
An adult, not the intended parent, who enters into a surrogacy agreement to become pregnant through IVF using gametes that are not the gametes of that individual
An individual selected by the service member who agrees to be a parent, with the member, of a child born as a result of fertility treatment
An individual selected by the covered veteran who agrees to be a parent, with the veteran, of a child born as a result of fertility treatment
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology