The Department of Veterans Affairs proposed a rule on Monday that would reverse a Biden-era provision that had allowed the agency to conduct abortions.
The newly proposed rule, which was published in the federal register, said that the VA would seek to restore “the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package.”
Biden administration had removed the exclusion.
“Before that time, this exclusion had been firmly in place since the medical benefits package was first established in 1999,” the federal register continued.
“We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families.”
As noted by the Christian Post, the Biden administration had permitted the VA to conduct abortion and abortion-related services starting in September 2022, shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The proposed rule from the Trump administration nevertheless said that the “interim final rule was not only inappropriate as a matter of fact but also was legally questionable.”
“The only time Congress has specifically addressed VA’s authority to provide abortions was in 1992 in section 106 of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992,” the proposal added.
“VA’s legal authority to ‘un-do’ the changes made in September 2022 is beyond doubt,” it continued.
The reversal on the Biden-era rules is not intended to limit access to true reproductive healthcare.
The proposal made clear that the “VA has never understood this policy to prohibit providing care to pregnant women in life-threatening circumstances,” including ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, which had been “covered under the VA’s medical benefits package” before the 2022 rule change.
The rule would say that “the exclusion for abortion does not apply ‘when a physician certifies that the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.’”
The Trump administration’s move to make sure the VA is not performing abortions was celebrated by Republicans on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
“It was wrong that the Biden administration violated settled law in 2022 and began offering abortion services through VA,” a statement from the lawmakers said.
The statement called the Biden rule “a disastrous policy that was created for political purposes.”
“We pushed back hard on this disastrous policy over the last two years to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable and protect the lives of the unborn,” it continued.
“It’s simple — taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money spent on paying for abortions — and VA’s sole focus should always be providing service-connected health care and benefits to the veterans they serve,” they added. “House Republicans, alongside President Trump, will always stand up for the sanctity of life — today’s decision by Secretary Collins makes that message perfectly clear.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
