Congresswoman Sara Jacobs

And right now, military families don't have that access to IVF coverage.

And so we are taking away that agency from them.

That's exactly right.

In fact, most of the military families I've been talking to, it is the male who's having fertility challenges because of the service-related reasons.

That's not always the case, but we do know that it's very prevalent that it is the male who does have these infertility challenges.

But I also think one of the things I find difficult about this conversation maybe is that while I know

that it's not the right choice for me to have a child right now and be able to be fully present in my job.

I also have a lot of colleagues who have small children and they are incredible at their job and I never want

give off the impression or to make anyone feel like they can't do that and actually some of my best employees have kids at home like mothers are sometimes the best employees right they're highly efficient they're very focused and so i also don't want to say you can't i guess i reject the whole premise of that that like when a service member has a kid they become a less good service member in many cases i think they become a much better service member potentially and so

Like we want to give people as much agency and choice and accessibility as we can to be able to make those their own choices.

And oftentimes those having those choices actually makes them better at their job.

And I hear these kinds of stories all the time.

People who have to give up their military career because they need to get a job in the private sector so that they can get health insurance that will cover these fertility treatments, for instance.

And look, I don't want to say it's only service members who face these challenges.

Obviously, the work of service members is very unique in a lot of ways.

Our prime reproductive years also tend to be when we are reaching our prime

earning potential, productivity years, right?

And a lot of families are facing these same questions, right?

Do they continue on this career path they're on or do they deviate to start a family and how do they do that?

And like, why does it all happen right at the same time?