Trump administration wants to end abortion coverage through Veterans Affairs

Emma Rousseau of Oakland, N.J., her mouth bound with a red, white and blue netting, attends a rally on the Fourth of July to protest for abortion rights, at Lafayette Park in front of the White House in Washington, July 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is calling to remove abortion coverage from the list of medical benefits for veterans and their families, saying it’s not needed.

The Department of Veterans Affairs posted the proposed rule change on Monday and opened a public comment period on it that runs through Sept. 3. The department said in its proposal that it wants to ensure it “provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families.”

The department says it would still provide abortion in life-threatening circumstances — something state laws allow, even in places where bans are in place. But critics of the change note that abortion would not be provided when pregnancies are the result of rape or incest.

Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement that the change would cut off millions of veterans and their families from services.

“Veterans have historically faced significant barriers to reproductive health care, and with the current patchwork of abortion bans and restrictions across the country, these barriers are even steeper today,” she said.

Veterans Affairs, which provides health coverage for veterans and their dependents, did not include abortion in its coverage until 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration added it months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and state abortion bans began kicking in.

The Biden changed allowed the VA to provide abortion even in states where it was banned. The VA says in its proposal that allowing abortion is legally questionable because Congress has not specifically allowed it. The policy change would also bring the VA’s coverage into line with other federal health care plans — including Medicaid and the TriCare coverage for active military members and their families — which exclude abortion in most cases.

The VA said in its filings that about 100 veterans and 40 dependents obtain abortions using the benefits each year — far below the projection the department made in 2022 of a total of 1,000 a year.

The conservative law firm Alliance Defending Freedom called on the VA to drop abortion coverage in a letter last month, saying the cost or providing abortion takes other health resources away from veterans.

Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press