The Pentagon will continue to reimburse service members who travel to get fertility treatments, the department confirmed this week, walking back its earlier move to fully repeal its reproductive health care travel policy.

Late last month, the Pentagon quietly updated its travel regulations^[1] to remove all the language allowing service members to get travel and transportation allowances for trips related to reproductive health care. That meant travel was no longer covered for either abortion or fertility treatments.

But in a follow-up memo dated Feb. 4^[2] that was similarly published on the Pentagon's travel regulations website without fanfare, the department clarified that it was not repealing the travel policy for fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization.

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"This item reestablishes the authority to travel for Non-Covered Assisted Reproductive Technology," said the newest memo, signed by Sarah Moore, deputy director of the Defense Travel Management Office. The memo last month "should not be interpreted as the elimination of access to non-covered Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)."

Asked about the reversal Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the policy was again updated to allow for IVF-related travel, but did not provide a comment by Military.com's deadline on whether the earlier full repeal was a mistake or intentional.

The policy to provide travel reimbursement for a range of reproductive health care was first put in place by the Biden administration in response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to ban abortion.

The Biden administration maintained that making it easier for troops to travel for reproductive health care was imperative to ensuring women join and stay in service since the biggest military bases are located in states that have banned or severely restricted abortion and service members cannot choose where they are stationed.

Republicans fumed against the policy, arguing that it violated a legal prohibition on federal funding being used for abortion. In protest of the policy, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., launched an 11-month blockade of senior military promotions that left the highest ranks of the military vacant and caused turmoil for military families counting^[4] on the promotions.

At the same time, though, Republicans raced to declare their support for IVF after an Alabama court ruling suggested further restrictions on reproductive care were in store after the abortion bans. The Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law, which would not outright ban IVF but would make the procedure unfeasible.

After the Alabama court ruling, President Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign that the "government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment." He also dubbed himself "the father of IVF" even as he acknowledged he was unfamiliar with the procedure until last year.

Despite the rhetoric, Republicans have blocked efforts to ease access to IVF. In addition to the Pentagon originally repealing the full reproductive care travel policy to comply with an executive order Trump issued on his first day in office, congressional Republicans last year scuttled a proposed expansion^[5] of Tricare^[6]'s coverage of IVF for troops.

The Pentagon's move to partially backtrack from repealing its reproductive health care travel policy was first reported by Task & Purpose^[7].

Groups that blasted the Pentagon for repealing the travel policy last month commended the partial walkback to allow for IVF travel.

"The aggressive action taken by the new administration that didn't just target those seeking travel for abortion care, but service members and their dependents seeking fertility care was woefully out of touch," Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in a news release. "This is a step in the right direction for the Pentagon, but the support that we give to women in the military and military families can't stop there."

Related: Proposed Expansion of IVF Coverage for Troops Scuttled from Compromise Defense Bill^[8]

The inspectors general for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, as well as six other federal agency watchdogs fired by President Donald Trump days after he took office, have filed a lawsuit against the president and his administration in an effort to get their jobs back, according to a Wednesday court filing.

The IGs allege that Trump failed to notify Congress about the firings at least 30 days before they occurred and did not provide a "substantive, case-specific rationale" for the terminations as required by federal law, according to the filing.

The lawsuit further alleges that the president's firings have "inflicted substantial damage on the critical oversight ethos of transparency" and that the IGs' integrity has been "baselessly maligned" publicly to incorrectly imply that they have committed wrongdoing.

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"The purported firings violated unambiguous federal statutes -- each enacted by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by the president -- to protect inspectors general from precisely this sort of interference with the discharge of their critical, nonpartisan duties," the court document said.

The lawsuits by the former IGs -- who are charged with identifying and rooting out government waste, fraud and abuse -- are among dozens of others filed in the wake of Trump's early and sweeping executive actions meant to gut the federal government in the name of efficiency.

The New York Times reported^[2] that the White House told as many as 17 IGs that they would be fired due to "changing priorities."

The plaintiffs include not only the former IGs of the Pentagon and VA, but Health and Human Services, State Department, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration.

The filing requests a court injunction to allow them to return to those jobs after the Trump administration pulled their access to email accounts, computer systems, government phones and ID cards, and "physically disabled" them from entering the buildings where they worked.

The IGs, some of whom served during Trump's first term, such as Michael Missal of the Department of Veterans Affairs^[3], said that they are nonpartisan officials who head independent watchdogs of the federal government that audit waste, fraud and abuse, not only saving the American taxpayers billions of dollars but also safeguarding national security, helping put fraudsters in prison and having "helped to end mistreatment of some of the nation's most vulnerable citizens," to include veterans, according to the filing.

The filing cited the Inspector General Act of 1978 as the law that requires the president to notify Congress of IG firings at least 30 days in advance. Trump followed that law and provided notice in his first term when he fired the State Department inspector general in 2020.

Robert Storch, who was the Pentagon inspector general before his firing two weeks ago, was appointed by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2022. Prior to his work at the DoD, he was the IG for the National Security Agency, having been nominated by Trump for that position.

At the DoD, he oversaw the release of 281 reports, made more than 970 recommendations for improvement to the Pentagon's various systems and policies, and "delivered a 'monetary impact' of over $10.8 billion," according to the court filing.

Since 2016, Missal's VA IG office made nearly 2,500 reports, 10,000 recommendations and "delivered a monetary impact of over $45 billion" to VA programs, policies and operations, the filing said.

Meanwhile, Trump has tasked Elon Musk -- who himself has billions of dollars in various federal contracts including with the Department of Defense -- to root out government waste and fraud via his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The White House said that Musk would not be required to file a public financial disclosure, which would have allowed the public to scrutinize his potential conflicts of interests, according^[4] to CNN, as Musk insisted his team would be transparent about their efforts during a press gaggle in the Oval Office with Trump on Tuesday.

The same day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said^[5] that he will "welcome DOGE to the Pentagon," adding that he believes it can find "billions of dollars" in savings within the military.

Military.com previously reported^[6] that Principal Deputy Inspector General Steven Stebbins and the deputy inspector general, David Case, would be stepping into the IG roles for the Pentagon and VA, respectively, until replacements are named.

Related: Watchdogs at Pentagon, VA Fired in Purge of Inspectors General Across Federal Government^[7]