A new bill would require federal researchers to examine how exposure to military burn pits affects women veterans, including fertility, pregnancy outcomes and the health of their children.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire introduced the Toxic Exposure and Women Veterans’ Health Outcomes Act, the lawmakers announced ahead of Veterans Day.
The proposal would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs, working with the Defense Department, to study health effects that its sponsors say have received too little attention. Their goal is to build evidence that could support recognition of additional women-specific conditions under the PACT Act.
The bill would require research and reports. It would not itself automatically add those conditions to the law’s presumptive benefits.
“The VA must conduct more research into the effects of burn pits on our brave women veterans so we can make sure their conditions are adequately covered,” Gillibrand said.
Study would examine reproductive health and children
The required epidemiological study would cover women veterans exposed to open-air burn pits during active military service. Researchers would examine effects on reproductive capacity and organs, fertility, birth defects, other adverse reproductive outcomes, developmental disabilities in veterans’ children, female-specific tissues and organs, and other effects unique to women’s physiology.
The bill also calls for identifying gaps in knowledge about long-term health effects, detection, and the safety and effectiveness of treatments. Researchers would assess connections to military service, including combat roles and exposure to burn pits, toxic chemicals and PFAS.
A preliminary report would be due within 180 days after enactment. A final report would be due within two years.
Goodlander, a Navy Reserve intelligence officer for more than a decade, said women who breathed burn-pit smoke deserve answers about possible effects on their health and their children.
“Instead, too many women who served our country in uniform are still left wondering whether their service cost them their health, their fertility, or the health of their children,” she said.
Sponsors seek evidence to address gaps in benefits
The lawmakers pointed to research on women who served in Vietnam that found an elevated risk of moderate to severe birth defects in their children. Congress subsequently established presumptive benefits for certain birth defects in children of women Vietnam veterans in 2000.
That earlier finding does not establish that burn-pit exposure causes the same outcomes. The proposed study would investigate those questions for women exposed during later military service.
More than 300,000 women served in post-9/11 conflicts, according to the announcement. Julie Tomaska, a retired Air Force member and chief scientific officer of Burn Pits 360, said only two studies had examined birth outcomes among those women.
Dr. Kyleanne Hunter, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said some exposure-related conditions may affect women differently and remain undetected for years, complicating efforts to understand and treat them.
The PACT Act, signed by President Joe Biden in 2022, expanded health care and benefits for qualifying toxic exposures. Presumptive service connection allows eligible veterans with covered conditions to seek benefits without individually proving their illness was caused by service.
The new bill has endorsements from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the National Military Family Association, Burn Pits 360, Military Veterans Advocacy, Wounded Warrior Project, the League of United Latin American Citizens and Tri-State Women Warriors.
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