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The Trump Administration is planning to ban U.S. military veterans from receiving abortion care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The proposed policy would eliminate access to abortion through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Trump administration is planning to bar U.S. military veterans from receiving abortion care through the federal government’s health care system, according to a new filing.
The proposed policy would eliminate the Biden administration's 2022 rule guaranteeing access to abortion through the Department of Veterans Affairs. It would prevent abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or when the health of the pregnant patient is at risk, only allowing them if “a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term."
The filing accuses the Biden administration of allowing access to abortion "without regard to State law." However, the Trump administration's rule would apply to those even in states where abortion is protected by state law.
The Trump administration similarly ended gender-affirming care for transgender veterans earlier this year. The VA announced in March that it would stop providing the lifesaving treatments, citing Trump’s January executive order defining sex and gender as strictly male or female and unchanging, despite the scientific and medical consensus that sex is a spectrum.
The VA soon after rolled back dignity protections for trans vets, which allowed them to use single-sex facilities that align with their gender identity. It also imposed strict regulations on what providers are allowed to do for their patients — even in private notes — and withdrew agency support for Pride celebrations.
“After veterans put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms, the Trump administration is trying to rob them of their own freedoms and putting their health at risk,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “This administration is sending a clear message to veterans — that their health and dignity aren’t worth defending. To devalue veterans in this way and take away life-changing health care would be unconscionable. This shows you just how extreme this administration’s anti-abortion stance is — they would rather a veteran suffer severely than receive an abortion.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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