To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study regarding women involuntarily separated or discharged from the Armed Forces due to pregnancy or parenthood, and for other purposes.

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7383 To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study regarding women involuntarily separated or discharged from the Armed Forces due to pregnancy or parenthood, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 26, 2020 Ms. BROWNLEY of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study regarding women involuntarily separated or discharged from the Armed Forces due to pregnancy or parenthood, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 3 Congress finds the following: 4 (1) In June 1948, Congress enacted the Wom- 5 en’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, which 6 formally authorized the appointment and enlistment 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7383 IH of women in the regular components of the Armed 1 Forces. 2 (2) With the expansion of the Armed Forces to 3 include women, the possibility arose for the first 4 time that members of the regular components of the 5 Armed Forces could become pregnant. 6 (3) The response to such possibilities and actu- 7 alities was Executive Order 10240, signed by Presi- 8 dent Harry S. Truman in 1951, which granted the 9 Armed Forces the authority to involuntarily separate 10 or discharge a woman if she became pregnant, gave 11 birth to a child, or became a parent by adoption or 12 a stepparent. 13 (4) The Armed Forces responded to the Execu- 14 tive order by systematically discharging any woman 15 in the Armed Forces who became pregnant, regard- 16 less of whether the pregnancy was planned, un- 17 planned, or the result of sexual abuse. 18 (5) Although the Armed Forces were required 19 to offer women who were involuntarily separated or 20 discharged due to pregnancy the opportunity to re- 21 quest retention in the military, many such women 22 were not offered such opportunity. 23 (6) The Armed Forces did not provide required 24 separation benefits, counseling, or assistance to the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7383 IH members of the Armed Forces who were separated 1 or discharged due to pregnancy. 2 (7) Thousands of members of the Armed 3 Forces were involuntarily separated or discharged 4 from the Armed Forces as a result of pregnancy. 5 (8) There are reports that the practice of the 6 Armed Forces to systematically separate or dis- 7 charge pregnant members caused some such mem- 8 bers to seek an unsafe or inaccessible abortion, 9 which was not legal at the time, or to put their chil- 10 dren up for adoption, and that, in some cases, some 11 women died by suicide following their involuntary 12 separation or discharge from the Armed Forces. 13 (9) Such involuntary separation or discharge 14 from the Armed Forces on the basis of pregnancy 15 was challenged in Federal district court by Steph- 16 anie Crawford in 1975, whose legal argument stated 17 that this practice violated her constitutional right to 18 due process of law. 19 (10) The Court of Appeals for the Second Cir- 20 cuit ruled in Stephanie Crawford’s favor in 1976 21 and found that Executive Order 10240 and any reg- 22 ulations relating to the Armed Forces that made 23 separation or discharge mandatory due to pregnancy 24 were unconstitutional. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7383 IH (11) By 1976, all regulations that permitted in- 1 voluntary separation or discharge of a member of 2 the Armed Forces because of pregnancy or any form 3 of parenthood were rescinded. 4 (12) Today, women comprise 17 percent of the 5 Armed Forces, and many are parents, including 12 6 percent of whom are single parents. 7 (13) While military parents face many hard- 8 ships, today’s Armed Forces provides various lengths 9 of paid family leave for mothers and fathers, for 10 both birth and adoption of children. 11 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 12 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con- 13 gress that women who served in the Armed Forces before 14 February 23, 1976, should not have been involuntarily 15 separated or discharged due to pregnancy or parenthood. 16 (b) EXPRESSION OF REMORSE.—Congress hereby ex- 17 presses deep remorse for the women who patriotically 18 served in the Armed Forces, but were forced, by official 19 United States policy, to endure unnecessary and discrimi- 20 natory actions, including the violation of their constitu- 21 tional right to due process of law, simply because they be- 22 came pregnant or became a parent while a member of the 23 Armed Forces. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7383 IH SEC. 3. GAO STUDY OF WOMEN INVOLUNTARILY SEPA- 1 RATED OR DISCHARGED DUE TO PREGNANCY 2 OR PARENTHOOD. 3 (a) STUDY REQUIRED.—Not later than September 4 30, 2021, the Comptroller General of the United States 5 shall conduct a study regarding women involuntarily sepa- 6 rated or discharged from the Armed Forces due to preg- 7 nancy or parenthood during the period of 1951 through 8 1976. The study shall identify— 9 (1) the number of such women, disaggregated 10 by— 11 (A) Armed Force; 12 (B) grade; 13 (C) race; and 14 (D) ethnicity; 15 (2) the characters of such discharges or separa- 16 tions; 17 (3) discrepancies in uniformity of such dis- 18 charges or separations; 19 (4) how such discharges or separations affected 20 access of such women to health care and benefits 21 through the Department of Veterans Affairs; and 22 (5) recommendations for improving access of 23 such women to resources through the Department of 24 Veterans Affairs. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7383 IH (b) REPORT.—Not later than 30 days after com- 1 pleting the study under subsection (a), the Comptroller 2 General shall submit to Congress a report containing the 3 results of that study. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:04 Jul 22, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7383.IH H7383 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with BILLS