The U.S. Department of Justice has instructed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to stop providing any abortion care or abortion counseling, even in cases of rape or incest, reversing a 2022 policy meant to preserve access for members of the military no matter where they might be deployed.
Peter Kasperowicz, press secretary for the VA, told States Newsroom via email on Tuesday that the agency is complying immediately with the legal opinion. The guidance also applies to recipients of the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), which provides coverage to veterans’ families, including children, along with caregivers of veterans.
“DOJ’s opinion is consistent with VA’s proposed rule, which continues to work its way through the regulatory process,” Kasperowicz said, referencing the August rule proposing to reinstate the full exclusion on abortion care.
Public comments about the draft rule closed on Sept. 3, and more than 24,000 comments were submitted, but it’s unclear how many were in support versus against it. The final rule is not yet published.
Minority Veterans of America, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, submitted a comment about the proposed rule asking that it be withdrawn because it places marginalized communities at further risk.
“Veterans have a unique confluence of medical risks that make them particularly vulnerable to health complications during their pregnancies,” a letter submitted to the VA reads. “Restricting access to abortion care for veterans who become pregnant from rape will only retraumatize sexual assault victims, likewise causing increased harm to veterans. And forbidding VA providers from offering abortion counseling will hamper access to necessary medical care and undermine veterans’ trust in VA services.”
According to estimates from nonprofit National Partnership for Women and Families, more than 400,000 women veterans lived in states that already had an abortion ban in place or were likely to ban it in 2023. That figure represents more than half of the women veterans in the country.
Former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration enacted a rule following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which ended federally protected access to abortion. Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to provide abortions in cases of rape or incest, and when the life or health of the pregnant person was in jeopardy. Counseling about abortion was also permitted.
The DOJ opinion is written by Joshua Craddock, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. It was issued on Dec. 18 and determined that the federal agency cannot provide abortion services under federal law, except those to save a pregnant patient’s life, and cannot provide any abortion counseling.
Craddock joined the DOJ in July, after years of writing about his views that life begins at fertilization and there should be legal protections beginning from that stage of life. His views include opposition to traditional in vitro fertilization, a perspective he has written about with Lila Rose, the founder and president of anti-abortion organization Live Action.
He has also advocated for using an 1873 anti-obscenity law called the Comstock Act as a means to prohibit the mailing of abortion medication, which is the same law cited by several Republican-led states that are suing to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
Rescinding the rule was also an imperative in Project 2025, the blueprint document published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and co-authored by anti-abortion organizations such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The first of what the document calls “needed reforms” is rescinding all department clinical policy directives that are “contrary to principles of conservative governance, starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery.”
This story was originally produced by News From The States, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes NC Newsline, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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