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Registering Women for the Draft: Proposals That Keep Coming Back

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED. Women are not required to register today, and the 2026 automatic-registration law covers only men. Proposals to add women have passed committees several times and have been removed from every final bill so far. Each time, the language comes back.

If you have a daughter, here is the short version: the current law does not reach her. But in the last several defense bills, the Armed Services Committees of both the House and Senate have voted to change that, and each time the language was dropped at the end. It is one committee vote and one final-bill decision away.

What the law says now​

The Selective Service FAQ says: "The Military Selective Service Act, as it is written, only authorizes the registration of 'male persons'." The new automatic-registration section enacted in December 2025 keeps that limit. It applies to "every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States," according to Section 535 of Public Law 119-60.

The FY2025 near miss​

The Congressional Research Service's Insight IN12450 (January 29, 2025) lays out the most recent attempt in detail:

  • The Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the FY2025 defense bill, S. 4638, Section 598A, "would have required automatic Selective Service registration for 'every citizen' (to include women)."
  • Section 529b of the same bill would have exempted women, if drafted, from "combat roles that were closed to women prior to December 3, 2015."
  • Section 598B would have removed federal penalties for failure to register.
  • The result, in CRS's words: "The enacted legislation does not include a provision for automatic registration, nor did it include a requirement for women to register."

CRS notes this pattern is not new: "prior congresses have seen legislation that would require women to register. These provisions were not enacted." It points readers to its earlier Insights on the FY2022 and FY2023 bills, both of which dealt with the same question.

Opponents have been organized. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) led a letter with 11 Republican colleagues opposing the women's registration provision in the FY2023 bill, as his Senate office recorded. When the fight returned in June 2024, he posted: "I'm not voting for any defense bill that forces my daughter to register for the draft. Not now, not ever." That post was viewed about 1.9 million times (Hawley on X, June 15, 2024). Earlier rounds ended the same way: The Hill reported in December 2021 that the provision requiring women to register had been stripped from that year's bill (The Hill).

June 2024: two versions of the same bill​

The FY2025 cycle shows how the two changes traveled together and then split. The Senate committee's bill would have registered women; the House bill would have made registration automatic. A critic's commentary shared at the time put it this way: "Congress Debates Women and the Draft, but Not War and the Draft," noting that the public "firestorm" was over women while the House's automatic-registration language drew less attention (Kyle Anzalone on X, June 21, 2024). Both were dropped in December 2024. In the next cycle, automatic registration came back and passed; women's registration did not.

A father's view from 2021, from Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby: "My son turned 18, so he had to register with Selective Service. It's a felony not to — but only for boys. How can such blatant sex discrimination still be justified? More to the point, how can draft registration still be justified?" (Jacoby on X, June 20, 2021).

One exception to keep in mind: a separate standby plan, the Health Care Personnel Delivery System, would cover medical workers of both sexes if Congress ever activated it. See If the Draft Were Turned Back On.

The courts stepped aside​

Men's-rights groups sued, arguing a men-only registration is unconstitutional sex discrimination. CRS reports that "In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to consider such a case, with one Justice noting that Congress was considering legislation that would require women to register and noting the court's 'longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defense and military affairs.'" In other words, the Court left the decision to Congress, which has so far kept the law men-only.

Why it matters during the Iran war​

The pattern is the same one that carried automatic registration into law. Automatic registration passed a committee in 2024, was stripped in December 2024, and came back to pass in December 2025, ten weeks before the war began. Women's registration passed committees for FY2022, FY2023, and FY2025, and was stripped each time. The language is written, debated, and ready. A war large enough to need conscripts is exactly the moment such language would stop being dropped. One 2026 post pointed out that women were in "the 2025 NDAA," which matches CRS's record of the Senate committee's FY2025 language.

Today, Section 535 applies only to "male" persons. A June 2024 post said the House had passed a women's requirement "for the first time" (post); the language was actually in the Senate committee's bill. Parents should watch the Senate Armed Services Committee, where it has appeared first.

Status: Josh Hawley, Jeff Jacoby, and Kyle Anzalone are alive.

What a citizen can check​

  • Each spring and summer, read the Armed Services Committee markups for the next NDAA. Search for "Selective Service" and "every citizen." That is where this language appears first.
  • Ask your senators how they voted in committee or on the floor on women's registration in past cycles.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t43__v512.md, t43__v515.md, t45__v533.md, t45__v536.md, t42__v493.md, t42__v503.md, t41__v487.md, t15__v176.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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