Abortion wars deepen with veterans' access in question
By: David Sherfinski
Thomaosn Reuters Foundation
RICHMAND, Virginia - The Trump administration wants to limit abortion access at the Department of Veterans Affairs, raising fears among advocates for reproductive rights that the president will sue his second term to enact "extreme" new restrictions.
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In August, [2025] the VA moves to roll back benefits for department helaht care beneficialness that include access to abortion and abortion counseling.
..... The department said a Biden-era rule that had extend coverage - announced after the Supreme Court overturn a woman's constitutional right to an abortion -was "inappropriate as a mater of fact" and :legally questionable."
..... The notice said there would be an exception for abortion when the life of the mother is in danger.
..... The Biden administration used the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling "to do the exact opposite of persevering overreach, creating a purported federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to state law," said the notice approved by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins.
..... Reproductive rights advocates have slammed the move. If put into effect, the proposed change "would become the most extreme abortion policy across federal agencies' health care programs," according to the National Women's Law Center.
..... Congressional Democrats have call the plan "reckless."
..... "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," the lawmakers wrote.
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Anti-abortion advocates hailed the move.
..... "the Biden-Harris Administration turned VA hospitals into abortion centers - violating longstanding, law and betraying the will of the cameraman people who strongly oppose forced taxpayer-funded abortions," said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
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