I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2180 
To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that women members 
of the Armed Forces and their families have access to the contraception 
they need in order to promote the health and readiness of all members 
of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 26, 2017 
Ms. SPEIER (for herself, Ms. NORTON, Ms. DELBENE, Miss RICE of New 
York, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. CICILLINE, 
Mr. TAKANO, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. SINEMA, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. TSONGAS, Ms. MENG, Mr. MCNERNEY, 
Mr. HECK, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. KILMER, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. ELLISON, 
Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. BROWNLEY of 
California, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. AGUILAR, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. YAR-
MUTH, Ms. MOORE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. WELCH, Mr. BERA, Ms. 
ESHOO, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. HIMES, Mr. 
BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. PRICE 
of North Carolina, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Ms. LEE, 
Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. DELANEY, 
Ms. ESTY of Connecticut, Ms. TITUS, Mr. PETERS, Mr. COHEN, Mr. 
CORREA, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. MATSUI, and Mr. SWALWELL of Cali-
fornia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that 
women members of the Armed Forces and their families 
have access to the contraception they need in order to 
promote the health and readiness of all members of 
the Armed Forces, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Access to Contracep-
tion for Women Servicemembers and Dependents Act of 
2017’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Women are serving in the Armed Forces at 
increasing rates, playing a critical role in the na-
tional security of the United States. Women com-
prise just over 15 percent of military service mem-
bers and more than 200,000 women serve on active 
duty in the Armed Forces or in the Selected Re-
serve. 
(2) More than 95 percent of women serving in 
the military are of reproductive age. And approxi-
mately 1.1 million female spouses and dependents of 
active duty military personnel are of reproductive 
age. 
(3) TRICARE covered 1.4 million women of re-
productive age in 2015, including female spouses 
and dependents of active duty military personnel. 
For 900,000 of these women, TRICARE was their 
only source of coverage. 
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(4) Contraception is critical for women’s health 
and is highly effective at reducing unintended preg-
nancy. The Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion describe contraception as one of the 10 greatest 
public health achievements of the twentieth century. 
(5) Contraceptive access is strongly connected 
to women’s greater educational and professional op-
portunities and increased lifetime earnings. In-
creased wages and increased control over reproduc-
tive decisions provide women with educational and 
professional opportunities that have increased gen-
der equality over the decades since contraception 
was introduced. 
(6) Studies have shown that when cost barriers 
to the full range of methods of contraception are 
eliminated, and women receive comprehensive coun-
seling on the various methods of contraception (in-
cluding highly effective and more expensive Long- 
Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs)), rates of 
unintended pregnancy decline. Costs can be prohibi-
tive, particularly for LARCs which can have high 
upfront costs. 
(7) Research has also shown that investments 
in effective contraception save public and private 
dollars. 
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(8) In order to fill gaps in coverage and access 
to preventive care critical for women’s health, the 
Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires, all non-grand-
fathered individual and group health plans to cover 
without cost-sharing preventive services, including a 
set of evidence-based preventive services for women 
supported by the Health Resources and Services Ad-
ministration (HRSA). These women’s preventive 
services include the full range of female-controlled 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved con-
traceptive methods, effective family planning prac-
tices, and sterilization procedures. HRSA has af-
firmed that contraceptive care includes contraceptive 
counseling, initiation of contraceptive use, and fol-
low-up care (e.g., management, and evaluation as 
well as changes to and removal or discontinuation of 
the contraceptive method). 
(9) Under the TRICARE program, service-
women on active duty have full coverage of all pre-
scription drugs, including contraception, without 
cost-sharing requirements. However, servicewomen 
not on active duty and female dependents of mem-
bers of the Armed Forces do not have similar cov-
erage of all prescription methods of contraception 
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approved by the Food and Drug Administration 
without cost-sharing. 
(10) Studies indicate that servicewomen need 
comprehensive counseling for pregnancy prevention, 
particularly in their predeployment preparations, 
and the lack thereof is contributing to unintended 
pregnancies among servicewomen. 
(11) Research studies based on the Department 
of Defense Survey of Health Related Behaviors 
Among Active Duty Military Personnel found a high 
unintended rate of pregnancy among servicewomen. 
Adjusting for the difference between age distribu-
tions in the Armed Forces and the general popu-
lation, the rate of unintended pregnancy among 
servicewomen is higher than among the general pop-
ulation. 
(12) The Defense Advisory Committee on 
Women in the Services (DACOWITS) has rec-
ommended that all the Armed Forces, to the extent 
that they have not already, implement initiatives 
that inform servicemembers of the importance of 
family planning, educate them on methods of contra-
ception, and make various methods of contraception 
available, based on the finding that family planning 
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