Trump Prepares to Revoke Lifesaving Abortion Care for Veterans

President Donald Trump appears poised to institute an abortion ban for hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs escalating his war on reproductive healthcare care by revoking veterans access to abortion The Office of Management and Budget concluded its review last week of a Veterans Affairs rule titled Reproductive Healthcare Services clearing the way to implement it at the VA Experts believe the rule is a reversal of a Biden-era framework of the same name which ended the agency s ban on abortion counseling for veterans and allowed for VA providers to offer abortion services in limited circumstances such as rape incest or endangerment of a pregnant person s life or wellness If the procedures is overturned hundreds of thousands of veterans in states with abortion bans could lose access to abortion care and counseling Sarah Baker the digital director for the Center for Reproductive Rights disclosed the change appears to be the first nationwide abortion ban that Trump is supporting and putting in place The new rule has not yet been published and until it is experts can t be certain what exactly is in it The VA did not respond to The Intercept s request for comment But Rachel Fey vice president of procedures and strategic partnerships at the reproductive and sexual robustness advocacy organization Power to Decide mentioned that based on the Trump administration s posture and explicit calls in Project to reverse the Biden framework she expects one of two outcomes We think either they would roll back the exceptions to an extremely narrow set that mimics the Hyde Amendment Fey stated referring to a law that bars federal funds from being used for abortion care except in cases of rape incest or to save a person s life The Hyde Amendment does not allow exceptions to preserve a person s wellbeing in non-fatal circumstances as the Biden rule does Or Fey declared another possibility is just striking the Biden rule entirely and saying abortion is not allowed in any circumstances at the VA The Biden administration implemented the Reproductive Wellbeing Services rule for the VA in two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade Though the rule only allows VA hospitals to provide abortions in extreme circumstances it was designed to provide basic protections in states that moved swiftly to institute abortion bans Read Our Complete Coverage The End of Roe Over half of all women veterans of reproductive age in the U S live in states where abortion is banned or likely to be banned according to analysis from the National Partnership for Women Families So that s women veterans that live in states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion disclosed Jaclyn Dean director of congressional relations reproductive soundness at the National Partnership for Women Families For multiple of the women veterans living in any of those states with total abortion bans the VA is the only place that they can get abortion care So you can expect those people to lose abortion care in cases of rape incest in the life and wellness of the pregnant person In that atmosphere Fey stressed even narrowing the exceptions could be devastating What we ve seen in states like Texas and Idaho is women coming close to death suffering the loss of future fertility sometimes suffering long-term disability because they were not given the standard clinical care they needed when they needed it Fey announced That s what we re talking about when we get to a life exception versus a soundness exception Rep Maxine Dexter D-Ore who co-authored a letter in April opposing the rule change along with House Democrats announced reversing the Biden rule was a betrayal As a physician I trained at the VA where a sign at the entrance read The price of freedom is visible here Our veterans sacrificed everything for this country and in return we promised them the best care viable Dexter wrote in a message to The Intercept For Trump to reinstate a complete ban on abortion care and counseling at the VA even in cases of rape incest or to save the life or soundness of the mother is an utter betrayal of that promise Veterans also face unique soundness risks related to pregnancy explained Baker with the Center for Reproductive Rights Pregnancy is just riskier for veterans reported Baker because of the different medical risks that they face higher rates of sexual assault higher rates of PTSD and the higher rates of other chronic conditions And restricting or cutting off access to abortion would only compound the additional impediments to accessing quality medical care that veterans already face Fey noted Serving in the U S military is often a way out of poverty for a lot of people in this country and because of systemic racism a disproportionate number of the people looking for that way out are Black and brown women when they serve in the military revealed Fey When we talk about reproductive medical care in this country the harms don t fall equally Related Trump Puts Lives at Menace by Revoking Crisis Abortion Guidelines for Hospitals The Trump administration has been steadily chipping away at policies put in place by President Joe Biden to protect access to reproductive strength care In June Trump rescinded guidance from the Biden administration that directed hospitals under the Crisis Biological Therapy and Working Labor Act to provide stabilizing rehabilitation to patients in curative emergencies including abortion care It s all part of this larger plan of extremists to ban abortion wherever they can and to interfere with people s personal physiological decisions reported Dean They re weaponizing control over veterans physical condition care instead of doing what s literally best for our country s veterans which is giving them the medical care that they need The post Trump Prepares to Revoke Lifesaving Abortion Care for Veterans appeared first on The Intercept