In a sweeping reversal to the Biden administration’s pro-abortion agenda, the Trump administration has barred the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from aborting the unborn babies of veterans and their dependents.
The restriction follows a memo from Joshua Craddock, deputy assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on December 18 to the VA stating that the department is not allowed to perform abortions under any provision of the law, the Hill reported.
The memo revoked a Biden-era OLC opinion that allowed the VA to provide abortions and abortion counseling to pregnant veterans and their dependents. The pro-abortion Biden administration promulgated a rule in September 2022 allowing veterans and covered dependents to obtain taxpayer-funded abortions in cases of rape and incest and to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman, as well as abortion counseling. The Biden administration issued the rule in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that had invented a constitutional right to abortion.
Screenshots purportedly obtained by the outlet of a separate internal VA memo, dated December 22 and sent to the leaders of the department’s 18 regional integrated service networks, states that the agency “must comply” with the OLC’s memo and that the VA will no longer provide abortions or abortion counseling “effective immediately.”
The internal memo also notes that nothing about the VA’s policy “prohibit[s] providing care to pregnant women in life-threatening circumstances, including treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.”
VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told the outlet that the VA is complying with the DOJ’s opinion “immediately.”
“DOJ’s opinion is consistent with VA’s proposed rule, which continues to work its way through the regulatory process,” Kasperowicz added.
The memos come as the Trump-led VA awaits the final version of a regulation proposed in August revoking the Biden-era abortion policy.
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President Trump’s VA wrote in its proposed rule that the Biden-era policy “was not only inappropriate as a matter of fact but also was legally questionable.” The VA also said the Biden-era rule departed from more than 20 years of precedent.
The agency wrote:
As a matter of law, it is without question that VA has the authority to bar provision of abortion services through the VA medical benefits package to veterans. From 1999 until 2022 that is in fact what VA did. It was not until 2022 when the VA Secretary reversed this course. The stated reason for doing so was a reaction to a Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that itself was intended to prevent federal overreach and return to States control over the provision of abortion services.
Yet, the last administration used Dobbs to do the exact opposite of preventing overreach, creating a purported Federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to State law. In doing so, the administration predicted a high demand for VA abortions that never materialized.
Under the Trump administration’s proposal, abortions would only be allowed when the mother’s life is at risk. The rule further clarifies that women will still have access to treatments for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.
In the VA’s explanation of the proposed rule, regulators noted that Congress created the department to provide “only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families.” The VA said that unless a pregnant woman’s life is at risk, an abortion is “not a ‘needed’ VA service.”
“This proposed rule restores VA to its proper role as the United States’ provider of needed medical services to those who served, delivered on behalf of a grateful nation,” the VA’s explanation reads.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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