The Pentagon has issued new rules that would prevent people currently treated for schizophrenia, congestive heart failure, having a donated organ or some other issues from receiving a medical waiver to serve in the military, according to a new memo revealed Tuesday.
The guidance, signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and dated July 11, updates the list of conditions that prevent potential recruits from joining the armed forces. The decision follows a review of the medical conditions that are currently eligible for a waiver, announced in April, as well as the Pentagon’s ban on transgender troops, enacted earlier this year.
“America’s warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions,” Hegseth wrote in the memo. “Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow Service members.”
Among the medical issues that disqualify someone from serving is a history of cystic fibrosis, current chronic supplemental oxygen use, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, any suicidal attempt within the past 12 months, osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, and a history of paraphilic disorders — defined as a persistent sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human partner.
The memo also lists several conditions that require a waiver granted by the secretary of a military branch. Those include a previous heart attack, the presence of an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator, a missing eye, hand or foot, past corneal transplants, liver failure, kidney disease requiring dialysis, neurodegenerative disorders and past psychotic disorders.
“Our high standards are a cornerstone of lethality, and the Department must remain vigilant in preserving those standards,” Hegseth said.
The military has long used waivers to enlist young people who might otherwise be unqualified for the armed forces due to medical or conduct issues, with only about 23 percent of young Americans eligible to enlist without some sort of waiver, Katie Helland, then the Pentagon’s director of military accession policy, said in October.
In the past decade, there has been a rise in medical waivers, with about 17 percent of recruits receiving them in 2022, up from 12 percent in 2013, according to a review by the DOD inspector general.
The rise is partly attributed to the Pentagon’s 2022 expansion of medical conditions that no longer disqualify people from enlisting, including childhood asthma and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Waivers also were previously allowed for heart failure, current treatment for schizophrenia and a history of paraphilic disorders, now struck from the list under the Pentagon’s new rules.
Hegseth has aggressively gone after anything deemed by the Trump administration as negatively impacting military readiness, including grooming and fitness standards and transgender troops.
The Pentagon began removing openly transgender service members from the military in June, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Defense may enforce a policy that President Trump ordered in January.
Unlike a policy enacted during Trump’s first term that prevented most transgender people from serving but made an exception for troops who had already started their gender transition, the new policy offers virtually no leeway, deeming anyone with a current diagnosis, history or symptoms of gender dysphoria unfit for military service.
Updated on July 23 at 6:12 a.m. EDT