New Pentagon Report Claims Progress as Survivors Tell Protect Our Defenders the System Is Broken
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2026
Brian Purchia, brian@protectourdefenders.com
If you would like to interview Josh Connolly, Senior Vice President of Protect Our Defenders, please respond directly or contact brian@protectourdefenders.com.
Protect Our Defenders cautions that fear of reporting – not fewer assaults – may be driving the numbers, as the Army court-martials a doctor charged in a case involving 93 alleged victims
Washington, DC – The Department of War released its Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military late Friday afternoon, reporting that the estimated rate of unwanted sexual contact for active-duty women fell from 6.8% to 4.3%, and that a third of victims came forward, up from a quarter. The Pentagon compared its results only to 2023. Measured against 2016, the picture is vastly different. An estimated 20,492 servicemembers experienced unwanted sexual contact last year – nearly 38% more than the 14,900 measured in 2016, and almost identical to the 20,500 recorded in 2018. The 4.3% rate for active-duty women is precisely the rate the Pentagon reported in 2016. The rate for men, 1.0%, is above the 0.7% recorded in 2018. Two out of three victims still did not report. Roughly one in six women in uniform still reported being sexually harassed.
Over the past two years, Protect Our Defenders has seen something different. The same problems have surfaced case after case: prosecutions that never happen after someone checks with the command, documents lost, evidence never used, survivors handed from one victims’ counsel to the next or left without one, and servicemembers pushed out of the military and cut off from medical and mental health care on the way out. This latest report comes out after this administration fired the services’ top JAG lawyers and eliminated independent prosecutors, paused prevention training and cut victim services, issued guidance discouraging reporting, and rolled back whistleblower and anonymous reporting protections. Last year’s report showed those reforms beginning to work. This one follows a year of dismantling them.
The report lands as the Army court-martials suspended OB-GYN Maj. Blaine D. McGraw, referred August 3 on nine charges and 272 specifications involving 93 alleged victims at two Army hospitals. The Department’s survey counts active-duty servicemembers only. POD’s Pro Bono Legal Network is representing survivors in that case, stepping in where the military has repeatedly failed to provide the support required under law. Survivors seeking free, confidential legal support can find more information here. Because of the Feres doctrine, servicemembers still cannot take the government to court. The bipartisan Military Sexual Trauma Accountability Act, introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and John Kennedy (R-LA), would change that.
Protect Our Defenders Senior Vice President Josh Connolly, former Chief of Staff to Rep. Jackie Speier, released the following statement:
“I wouldn’t take these numbers at face value, and neither should the American public. They are not what we are seeing.
“Survivors are more afraid to come forward than they were two years ago, and this administration has spent the past year giving them reason to be – rolling back whistleblower protections, making it harder to report anonymously, warning people who come forward that they may be punished for it. A number that falls because people stopped talking is not progress.
“Talk to those who do report. The vast majority of those cases go nowhere. Documents get lost. Evidence never gets used. They’re handed from one lawyer to the next, or never get one at all. Then they’re pushed out and lose their medical and mental health care on the way.
“We are nearly six months into a war with Iran, and the Pentagon is driving out servicemembers it spent years training and cannot easily replace. Congress should pass the Military Sexual Trauma Accountability Act and let a servicemember who was assaulted take the military to court — the same right every civilian already has, and the one consequence this system has never had to fear.”
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About Protect Our Defenders:
Protect Our Defenders is the pre-eminent national human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual violence, victim retaliation, misogyny, and discrimination in the military, and combating a culture that has allowed abuse to persist. POD provides free, confidential advocacy and legal support to servicemembers, veterans, and civilians while advancing systemic reform.Learn more at protectourdefenders.com.
