On Aug. 4, the Department of Veterans Affairs proposed to stop offering abortion care at its hospitals, which would reverse a 2022 rule.
From 1999 to 2022, VA hospitals excluded abortions and abortion counseling in its medical benefits package for veterans and family members. During the Biden administration, this exclusion ended shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The rule was amended to allow abortion care in cases of rape, incest or to protect the mother’s health, according to The Washington Post.
Since 2022, “the average number of veterans who receive abortions from VA is 100 per year, and the average number of [civilian] beneficiaries who receive abortions from VA is 40 per year,” according to the department’s proposal.
“For decades, VA had consistently interpreted abortion services as not ‘needed’ medical services and therefore not covered by the medical benefits package,” the proposal said.
