At a press conference with fellow Democratic colleagues on the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees, Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) emphasized the urgent need to pass the Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act to protect women veterans’ access to reproductive healthcare. Photo from a press release issued by Brownley’s office.
WASHINGTON, DC — VA has taken steps to ban nearly all abortions at its medical centers, as well as to stop covering the cost of the procedure for any spouses and dependents.
In a notice in the Federal Register, the department announced that it planned to roll back an interim rule that has stood since September 2022, when VA expanded abortion care in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The proposed regulation will only allow VA to provide abortions if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. It’s a move that’s been expected since February when VA Secretary Douglas Collins was sworn in and is drawing criticism from veterans’ health advocates and Democrats, who argue that the administration is putting politics above the health of women veterans.
Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. 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. Republicans argued that this contradicted a 1992 law prohibiting VA from providing abortion services, as well as the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding to be used for abortion care, except in cases of rape, incest or where it threatens the life of the mother.
VA officials said the department had the power to make this change because the resulting state bans on abortion represented a clear and present danger to the health of women veterans. According to VA legal counsel, this superseded the federal prohibition against abortion. Prior to this, VA doctors were essentially under a gag order, unable to even discuss abortion services with pregnant veterans.
At the time, approximately 260,000 female veterans of reproductive age lived in states that had passed abortion bans. Of those, 96,200 were enrolled in VA healthcare. Looking at those numbers, VA officials predicted that department facilities could provide as many as 1,000 abortions in the first year.
Later, it would be shown that VA provided only 88 abortions—60 medication and 28 surgical—between September 2022 and September 2023. Of those, 64 were performed because they threatened the health of the mother, 9 because pregnancy endangered her life and 15 because the pregnancy was the result of rape.
The 64 cases that threatened the health of the mother drew the focus of Republicans, who argued those likely went against the Hyde Amendment, depending on how severely each pregnancy threatened the patient’s health. Legislators on the VA House Committee demanded the data to be broken down by VISN, trimester in which the abortion was performed and the patient’s documented health condition that led to the abortion choice.
VA officials refused, saying providing such specific health information could lead to the identification of the patients.
The intervening years saw a number of similar back-and-forths between Biden-era VA officials and Republican legislators, as well as proposed legislation to compel VA to provide more information on abortions performed at its facilities. That ceased when President Donald Trump nominated Collins, who has been strongly anti-abortion in the past. While he was noncommittal on the issue during his nomination hearings, it was expected he would move to reverse the 2022 interim rule.
“As a matter of law, it is without question that VA has the authority to bar provision of abortion services through the VA medical benefits package to veterans,” the notice in the Federal Register stated. “From 1999 until 2022 that is in fact what VA did. It was not until 2022 when the VA secretary reversed this course. The stated reason for doing so was a reaction to a Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that itself was intended to prevent federal overreach and return to states control over the provision of abortion services. 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.”
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate VA committees spoke out against the policy in a public letter.
“For the past three years, these patients have been able to obtain comprehensive pregnancy counseling, including information about abortion services, and abortion care in cases of rape, incest, or life or health endangerment,” they wrote. “This proposed rule seriously calls into question whether the department is putting political allegiances and culture wars ahead of its sacred obligation to deliver quality, life-saving health care to veterans, including the more than 462,000 women veterans of reproductive age enrolled in VA healthcare.”
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) has introduced legislation, The Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act, which would guarantee veterans and their dependents the right to abortion care, medication and counseling.
“This legislation will ensure veterans are not subjected to the personal beliefs or political agendas of whoever happens to lead the department,” she declared.
With the House and Senate under Republican control, it is unlikely the legislation will be passed out of committee.