The Veterans Affairs Department is reimposing a near total ban on abortions for veterans and their families after a Justice Department memo from the Office of Legal Counsel last week asserted that it’s against federal law for the VA to provide them in most instances.
VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz told CBS News, “The Department of Justice’s opinion states that VA is not legally authorized to provide abortions, and VA is complying with it immediately. DOJ’s opinion is consistent with VA’s proposed rule, which continues to work its way through the regulatory process.”
In 2022, the department modified its 1999 abortion rules to allow “access to abortions when the life or health of the pregnant Veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest,” the VA website states.
Now, under the guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel, the VA’s proposed rule reinstates “the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package.”
The proposed rule does have one exception, stating that the “VA has never understood this policy to prohibit providing care to pregnant women in life-threatening circumstances, including treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, which were covered under the VA’s medical benefits package prior to the 2022. … For the avoidance of doubt, the proposed rule would make clear that the exclusion for abortion does not apply ‘when a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.'”
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington condemned the VA’s move in a post on X, saying it “is yet another attack on reproductive freedom and a profound betrayal of veterans who put their lives on the line for our country.” And Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California, said on X that denying veterans “the freedom to make their own health care decisions—especially survivors of military sexual trauma—is cruel, dangerous, and an insult to all who have served.”
The VA argued in its proposed rule that it is “without question that VA has the authority to bar provision of abortion services through the VA medical benefits package to veterans” and says the Biden administration implemented the changes to the abortion ban in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning women’s abortion rights. “In doing so, the administration predicted a high demand for VA abortions that never materialized,” the proposed rule states.
The Center for Reproductive Rights said in a press release that the policy “is effectively a national abortion ban for veterans, preventing them and their families from receiving abortions at VA health care facilities in all 50 states, including the 14 states that protect abortion rights.”
The VA’s policy change was first reported by MS Now.
