According to the draft rule change, the new policy will overhaul medical services provided to nine million veterans and eligible family members. The VA has never offered abortions of any kind, nor has it offered abortion counseling to patients considering surgery.
According to VA data, there are 2 million female veterans in the United States, about a quarter of whom are enrolled in VA Care.
“The VA serves approximately 300,000 women of childbearing age, making female veterans the VA’s fastest growing cohort,” VA spokeswoman Terrence Hayes said in an email. I’m here. Once the rules were published, Hayes said the VA “will immediately be ready to offer these services in as many locations as possible.”
In a statement, Veterans Affairs Secretary Dennis McDonagh called the change a “patient safety decision.”
“Pregnant veterans and veteran beneficiaries have the right to access world-class reproductive care when they need it most. That is what our country owes them and what the VA provides. is,” said McDonough.
Veterans’ advocates welcomed the change as an expansion of veterans’ healthcare options.
“Increasing access to timely, quality health care for veterans should always be a top priority for the VA,” said Jeremy Butler, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans America. said in an email.
Other supporters, such as Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), a member of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee, are shaping the restrictive reproductive rights situation that many Americans now face. while criticizing Republican lawmakers for being veterans, praised the change.
“For the first time in history, the Veterans Health Administration will finally be able to provide abortion care, leaving veterans and their eligible dependents facing medical emergencies simply because Republican politicians think they can. , so they don’t have to get pregnant after rape or incest.They know what’s best for them,” Murray said in a statement.
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Illinois), a senior member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, criticized the announcement.
“This proposal runs counter to long-established laws and is a complete administrative overreach,” he said in a statement. “I am against it and already working to stop it.”
VA move comes two months after federal protection offered by Landmark Law vs Wade The judgment was overturned by the Supreme Court. The VA’s undersecretary of health, Shereef Elnahal, said in a statement that the VA made the change after speaking with veterans and health care providers. egg Overturned posed health risks to veterans and their families.
The new policy is to expand health care benefits for veterans, but the regulations are very similar to existing care within the Department of Defense, using the same standards to provide abortions in military hospitals. Data show that active duty military care is not widely used, averaging fewer than 20 abortions each year.
Still, advocates urge lawmakers and defense officials to help remove barriers to selective abortion, pointing to military bases in many states banning all abortion and the difficulty of long-distance travel. We have put pressure on the authorities. The Department of Veterans Affairs described a similar issue in its draft policy, stating that some veterans and family members “may lose access to such medical services in their communities.”
Under the new VA policy, providers will determine on a case-by-case basis what meets the criteria for a pregnancy that endangers the life and health of the pregnant person. Veterans seeking to terminate a pregnancy that was the result of rape or incest only need to self-report and do not need to provide documentation such as a police report.
In a department offering abortion services for the first time, it is unclear how quickly VA facilities can deploy physicians capable of performing this procedure, especially in states where abortion is heavily restricted. One solution is for veterans and eligible family members to seek treatment in private hospitals if they qualify. In such cases, VA will bear the costs.
