The Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to end access to abortions and abortion counseling for veterans and beneficiaries of VA’s Civilian Health and Medical Program.
“We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families,” VA said in the Federal Register.
The new rule would roll back a 2022 Biden Administration rule that provided access to abortion counseling and abortions to certain pregnant veterans and beneficiaries. The 2022 rule came after a Supreme Court decision that eliminated the constitutional right to obtain an abortion.
“As abortion bans come into force across the country, veterans in many States are no longer assured access to abortion services in their communities, even when those services are needed,” VA said in 2022.
As a result of the 2022 rule and regardless of state laws, VA now provides abortion access to pregnant veterans whose life or health is at risk if their pregnancy is carried to term, or if it is the result of rape or incest.
But in its Aug. 1 filing, the Trump Administration labeled the 2022 rule “federal overreach.”
“Yet, the last administration used Dobbs to do the exact opposite of preventing overreach, creating a purported Federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to State law,” the filing reads.
In a joint statement, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), and Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), lauded the proposed rule change.
“It was wrong that the Biden administration violated settled law in 2022 and began offering abortion services through VA. We pushed back hard on this disastrous policy over the last two years to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable and protect the lives of the unborn,” the lawmakers wrote. “It’s simple – taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money spent on paying for abortions – and VA’s sole focus should always be providing service-connected health care and benefits to the veterans they serve.”
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the government should not be able to impose a pregnancy on anyone.
“Current VA policy guarantees that, at the very least, veterans who are raped or who could die without an abortion can get the care they need. It is disgusting and dangerous that the Trump Administration will strip VA’s ability to provide essential health care to veterans in these harrowing situations,” he said in a statement. “It is a harmful and reckless move that reneges on the Department’s promise to provide every veteran the health care they earned and deserve. We cannot let VA stop providing this care to veterans by ripping away this narrow, targeted protection. I will be fighting as hard and long as possible to reverse this cruel, dangerous new policy.”
According to Blumenthal, more than 462,000 women veterans of reproductive age are enrolled in VA health care and more than half of them live in states that have enacted abortion bans or restrictions.
The proposed rule is now open for a 30-day public comment period.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.