1. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) In June 1948, Congress enacted the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act of 1948, which formally authorized the appointment and enlistment of women in the regular components of the Armed Forces. (2) With the expansion of the Armed Forces to include women, the possibility arose for the first time that members of the regular components of the Armed Forces could become pregnant. (3) The response to such possibilities and actualities was Executive Order 10240, signed by President Harry S. Truman in 1951, which granted the Armed Forces the authority to involuntarily separate or discharge a woman if she became pregnant, gave birth to a child, or became a parent by adoption or a stepparent. (4) The Armed Forces responded to the Executive order by systematically discharging any woman in the Armed Forces who became pregnant, regardless of whether the pregnancy was planned, unplanned, or the result of sexual abuse. (5) Although the Armed Forces were required to offer women who were involuntarily separated or discharged due to pregnancy the opportunity to request retention in the military, many such women were not offered such opportunity. (6) The Armed Forces did not provide required separation benefits, counseling, or assistance to the members of the Armed Forces who were separated or discharged due to pregnancy. (7) Thousands of members of the Armed Forces were involuntarily separated or discharged from the Armed Forces as a result of pregnancy. (8) There are reports that the practice of the Armed Forces to systematically separate or discharge pregnant members caused some such members to seek an unsafe or inaccessible abortion, which was not legal at the time, or to put their children up for adoption, and that, in some cases, some women died by suicide following their involuntary separation or discharge from the Armed Forces. (9) Such involuntary separation or discharge from the Armed Forces on the basis of pregnancy was challenged in Federal district court by Stephanie