The proposal would restore a decades‑old policy excluding abortions from taxpayer‑funded services at hospitals operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Trump administration has announced a proposal to rescind a Biden-era rule and bar medical centers operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from performing taxpayer-funded abortions except when the mother’s life is in danger.
The regulatory change will be formally proposed by VA in the Aug. 4 edition of the Federal Register, with a 30-day public comment period before it can enter into force.
With the move, the agency is looking to bring back its pre-2022 policy banning abortions and abortion counseling in its medical benefits package and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) program, restoring restrictions that had been in place since 1999.
“We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families,” the agency wrote in the proposal.
In 2022, under the administration of President Joe Biden, the department amended its regulations to expand exceptions to the provision of abortions in VA-operated medical centers to include instances of rape, incest, or general health concerns. Ahead of the change, a number of Democratic lawmakers urged VA to change the rule to make abortion services more widely accessible after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and handed abortion-related decision authority back to individual states.
“This decision makes it even more critical that veterans receive access to the reproductive care to which they are entitled,” a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough, referring to the Supreme Court ruling, which prompted a number of states to restrict abortions.
“Thus, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must urgently begin rulemaking to allow veterans and eligible dependents to receive abortions and all abortion-related services,” they added.
The rule change was met with strong pushback from a number of Republican lawmakers, who said that it violated federal law.
“VA is in clear violation of settled law by currently offering abortion services nationwide. With each week that passes, the number of abortions performed at VA facilities grows,” Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.), the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said in a February 2023 statement.
By Tom Ozimek
