The Department of Veterans Affairs has sparked more outrage this month. On Friday, August 1, the Department of Veterans Affairs called to remove abortion coverage from medical benefits for veterans and their dependents. "We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation's heroes and their families," the Department wrote in a scheduled release for the Federal Register.
The Department of Veterans Affairs posted the proposed rule change this past Monday and opened a public comment period that runs through September 3. The VA claimed that around 100 veterans and 40 dependents seek abortions using the benefits yearly -- far below the projection made in 2022 by President Joe Biden's administration of a total of 1,000 a year.
Katie O'Connor, senior director of federal abortion policy at the National Women's Law Center, says the initiative was a "direct attack" on those who have served the United States. "Let me be clear: Abortion is healthcare," O'Connor says in a statement. "Banning access to the full range of reproductive services, including abortion, further jeopardizes their health and safety."
Veterans Affairs says it would still provide abortion in life-threatening circumstances, such as ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages -- something state laws allow, even in places where bans are in place. But opponents of the change point out 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, say in a statement that this switch would bar millions of veterans and their families from imperative services. "Veterans have historically faced significant barriers to reproductive healthcare, and with the current patchwork of abortion bans and restrictions across the country, these barriers are even steeper today," she says.
Veterans Affairs did not include abortion in its coverage until 2022, when President Joe Biden's administration added it after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and state abortion bans began to follow.