Veteran Families Health Services Act of 2025
The Veteran Families Health Services Act of 2025 would substantially expand reproductive health services across both the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It creates new authorities to provide fertility treatment and counseling to active-duty service members and their spouses/partners/gestational surrogates, plus options for fertility preservation and cryopreservation before deployment or hazardous duties. It also extends similar fertility treatment, counseling, and adoption assistance to veterans through VA, and encourages coordination between DoD and VA on ongoing care, transitions to veteran status, and shared research efforts. The bill emphasizes inclusive access—without regard to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status—and sets specific limits on IVF cycles and related services. Regulations would be issued within two years, and some existing authorities would sunset once those new regulations are in place.
Key Points
- 1Expanded fertility treatment and counseling for active-duty members and their spouses/partners/gestational surrogates, including up to three completed IVF oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers; eligibility is broad and non-discriminatory (covers sex, gender identity, orientation, etc.).
- 2DoD must establish fertility preservation procedures for service members facing injury or illness that may jeopardize fertility; allows retrieval and storage of reproductive material before dangerous assignments; storage can be at no cost for up to one year after retirement/separation, with options to continue storage at personal or private facility costs afterward; requires advance directives addressing use of preserved material.
- 3DoD and VA coordination framework, including a memorandum of understanding to ensure continuity of care for service members transitioning to veteran status; provides for VA reimbursement to DoD for certain costs related to cryopreservation, transportation, and storage of veterans’ reproductive material.
- 4VA's new authority to provide fertility treatment/counseling to eligible veterans and their spouses/partners/gestational surrogates (1720M), including the option to use donated material if the veteran cannot provide their own; imposes copayments consistent with hospital care requirements under VA rules; up to three oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers.
- 5VA adoption assistance (1790) for eligible veterans, up to the cost of not more than three adoptions; includes defining “covered veteran” to access this aid and clarifying ownership/disposition of reproductive material remains with the individuals and the private storage facility.
- 6New research facilitation (7330E) to support joint DoD-HHS efforts on reproductive health research affecting veterans, with dissemination of findings within the Veterans Health Administration; regulations for all these provisions to be issued within two years.