The Senate is considering a bill that would expand medical benefits for severely injured service members so that they and their spouses or surrogates can have children through in vitro fertilization.

The Department of Veterans Affairs now covers a range of medical treatment for veterans, including some infertility care, but the legislation specifically authorizes the agency to cover IVF and to pay for procedures now provided for some critically injured active-duty soldiers.

Six years ago, a roadside bomb exploded outside Andrew Robinson's Humvee in Iraq, breaking the Marine staff sergeant's neck and leaving him without use of his legs. It also cast doubt on his ability to father a child, a gnawing emotional wound for a then-23-year-old who had planned to start a family with his wife of less than two years.

The catastrophic spinal cord injury meant the couple's best hope for children was in vitro fertilization, an expensive and time-consuming medical procedure whose cost isn't covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.