Department of Veteran Affairs, under the Biden/Harris Administration, to Begin Performing Abortions

Today the Department of Veteran Affairs, part of the Biden/Harris Administration, announced that it will provide abortions for veterans and their beneficiaries that are deemed “medically necessary” or in cases of rape or incest. The VA has announced it will provide those abortions across the nation — including Texas, where the Human Life Protection Act limits elective abortions. Medically necessary is a term of art that can easily be interpreted to include abortions on demand, which was the practice in the Medicaid program before Congress enacted the Hyde Amendment.

Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director, gave these comments in response:

The Biden-Harris Administration’s directive would expand abortions for veterans and their beneficiaries in a way that violates federal law and the Human Life Protection Act here in Texas.

We find that extremely regrettable because this could lead to the deaths of thousands of unborn babies in Texas who would otherwise be protected from abortion. This shows how far the Biden-Harris administration will go in promoting abortion in any way they can. We wish they would instead direct the VA’s resources toward providing compassionate alternatives to abortion to care for women and their babies like Texas has done so well.

Women in our state and country need support, not abortion, when facing unplanned pregnancies. The VA should take Texas’ lead when it comes to the support for mothers and their unborn babies.

Background

• In 2021 the Texas Legislature passed and Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 1280, the Human Life Protection Act, which protects unborn babies from abortion throughout pregnancy. The law went into effect in August, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. The law does not prohibit treatment of an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage and includes a medical exception when the pregnant woman “has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”
• Also in 2021, the Legislature appropriated, and Governor Abbott approved, $100,000,000 for the highly successful Alternatives to Abortion program to assist 150,000 women with unplanned pregnancies a year. Services continue for three years after the birth of the child.
• According to a letter to the Department of Veteran Affairs from dozens of members of Congress, federal law “prohibits the VA from offering abortion or abortion counseling to veteran patients.”
  Before Congress adopted and the Supreme Court upheld the Hyde, the Medicaid Program paid for hundreds of thousands of abortions per year classified as “medically necessary,” for example, in 300,000 in 1976.