VIDEO: Hirono Highlights Importance of Supporting Female Service Members and Increasing Public Trust in order to Meet Military Recruitment and Retention Goals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned a panel of Department of Defense (DOD) leaders about the impact that access to reproductive health care, family planning, and military culture have on military recruitment and retention efforts during a hearing of the panel’s Subcommittee on Personnel.

“Recruiting and retaining female servicemembers is essential for our military readiness and national security,” said Senator Hirono during the hearing. “Yet, women are more likely to leave service than their male peers given frustrations with family planning, gender bias and discrimination, not to mention sexual assault and sexual harassment.”

In the hearing, Senator Hirono discussed the findings of a recent RAND Corp study, which found that 40 percent of women servicemembers will have no, or severely restricted, access to abortion services where they are stationed after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, and the impacts of this crisis on the military’s efforts to recruit and retain women. Earlier this year, Senator Hirono led a letter urging the DOD to take immediate steps to support and protect female servicemembers seeking abortion services following the Supreme Court’s dangerous decision to overturn Roe.

“This is a real concern because you have servicemembers who are serving in states such as Alabama, Tennessee—there’s a whole number of, basically, Southern states where they would have to travel a long ways in order to get reproductive or abortion services,” said Senator Hirono. “I would like to know what the Department of Defense plans to do to enable the servicemembers to get the care and the services that they need in the reproductive area.”

Additionally, Senator Hirono emphasized the need for the DOD to do more to provide financial assistance for family planning services, including cryopreservation. In July, the Senator urged the DOD to consider providing family planning options, including cryopreservation, to aid in recruitment and retention efforts.

“One of the top reasons servicemembers, particularly women, choose not to join, remain, or leave the armed forces is the impact military service has on family planning,” said Senator Hirono. “Would covering the cost of cryopreservation under Tricare be something the Department could consider to improve retention rates?”

Stephanie Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Policy, indicated that the office’s health affairs officials are continuing to look at that possibility, and committed to following up with an answer for Senator Hirono’s question.

Senator Hirono also highlighted the findings from a recent New York Times article that found several cases of instructor misconduct in the Junior R.O.T.C. (J.R.O.T.C.) program—where retired officers had been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving their teenage students.

“You talk about wanting access to high schools, but it’s not going to work very well if your instructors are engaging in sexual harassment, other kinds of misconduct,” said Senator Hirono. “How will you demonstrate that the recruiters and military personnel can be trustworthy?”

“We have implemented enhanced training of all of our marines from even before they enlist, all the way up until the general officer level, to ensure that they understand the zero tolerance policy for sexual assault and sexual harassment,” said Dr. Michael Strobl, Acting Deputy Commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs of the U.S. Marine Corps. According to Dr. Strobl, the Marine Corps nearly doubled its budget for sexual assault prevention training, response coordinators, victim advocates, and prevention coordinators.

At the end of this exchange, Senator Hirono also asked Lieutenant General Caroline Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel, and Services of the U.S. Air Force, whether the Air Force was aware of this problem in their J.R.O.T.C. programs as well.

“Sexual assault is a crime—it’s a crime and we take it very seriously,” said Lieutenant General Miller. She went on to explain an initiative the Air Force is currently working on expanding in order to increase oversight in J.R.O.T.C. programs across the country.

Senator Hirono has long worked to end sexual harassment and assault in the military. Since 2013, she has championed the Military Justice Improvement Act to establish an impartial, fair, and accountable military justice system to address sexual assault. In 2020, she introduced the I am Vanessa Guillen Act in the Senate to remove decisions about prosecuting cases of sexual harassment and assault from the chain of command. This past April, Senator Hirono also introduced the Sexual Harassment Independent Investigations and Prosecutions (SHIIP) Act to remove sexual harassment from the military chain of command.

A link to download video of the Senator’s full question line is available here.

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