Incest, Rape Not Exceptions
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA), ranking Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health, center, condemned VA’s decision to reinstate a near-total abortion ban. Photo from Brownley’s website.
WASHINGTON, DC — In the waning days of 2025, VA quietly reinstated its near-total ban on abortion care and counseling. The ban was implemented following a memo from the Department of Justice stating that their revised interpretation of federal law prohibits the department from providing abortion services to veterans and their families.
Unlike other federal health programs, the ban applies even in cases of incest and rape. The only exception is when “a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.”
According to DOJ and VA leaders, the ban is a by-the-book interpretation of federal statue, while Democratic leaders and women’s rights advocates argue that the change represents a continued erosion of women’s healthcare and a clear step toward a national ban on abortion.
Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022, VA introduced an interim rule change that allowed its clinicians to provide abortion counseling and services when the pregnancy endangered the life of the mother or when it was the result of rape or incest.
Prior to this, VA doctors were essentially under a gag order, unable to even discuss abortion with pregnant veterans.
VA’s rationale was that the state bans on abortion following the overturning of Roe represented a clear and present danger to the health of women veterans. The legality of the interim rule rested on language in the law that gives the VA secretary broad discretion in what medical care is provided at VA hospitals. According to DOJ opinion at the time, this superseded the federal prohibition against using government funds to promote or provide abortions.
In its newest memo, the DOJ has reversed its position, stating that its current interpretation of the law is that VA’s mandate to provide medical care to veterans does not supersede federal prohibition.
The reversal does not come as a surprise, as VA published a notice in September that it planned to reinstate the ban. VA Secretary Doug Collins is on the record as strongly against abortion and said during his confirmation hearing that he would direct VA to revisit the 2022 interim rule.
According to a VA memorandum released shortly after the DOJ decision and signed by senior VA adviser John Figueroa, “VA must comply with [the DOJ decision] by reinstating the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling, which had been removed in 2022.”
The memo also defined life-saving services that would not fall under the ban, including ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage and other life-saving treatment.
“Care in these circumstances is covered under the medical benefits package and should not be delayed,” the memo states. It provides no mention of abortion in the case of sexual assault or incest.
In a comment to VA’s published notice in the Federal Register, Minority Veterans of America Executive Director Lindsay Church urged VA to allow veterans to access abortion care in the cases of rape.
“Abortion access and counseling are necessary to protect the mental health and well-being of veterans who become pregnant in these circumstances,” she said. “Being forced to carry such a pregnancy to term and give birth may compound the trauma stemming from the sexual assault, as well as compound existing mental conditions or cause new mental health consequences, such as anxiety, depression, or PTSD.”
Church added that the threat to a woman’s health during pregnancy is far broader than the new ban acknowledges, noting that the United States ranks last in maternal mortality among high-income countries and that severe pregnancy-associated morbidity is on the rise.
“For VA-paid delivery hospitalizations, the severe maternal morbidity rate nearly doubled in recent years, from 93.5 per 10,000 hospitalizations in FY 2011 to 184.6 in FY 2020,” Church wrote. “For pregnant veterans, abortion care may be necessary to prevent their health from further deteriorating.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, categorized the VA policy flip as another step toward a national abortion ban.
“This back-door move by the Trump administration to impose a near-total abortion ban at VA is an outrageous assault on veterans’ healthcare,” she said. “VA already prohibits abortion care except in incredibly limited circumstances. This change goes even further. … It’s shameful and indefensible.”
According to VA statistics, approximately 300,000 women of reproductive age are enrolled in VA healthcare, with 155,000 of them living in states that have enacted abortion bans or restrictions.
