(LifeSiteNews) In what is arguably its most significant pro-abortion action to date, the Biden administration announced Friday that it will expand abortion on demand and pro-abortion counseling through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), making abortion available for hundreds of thousands of veterans and their beneficiaries, effective immediately, in violation of federal and state laws. The new rule includes a broad, undefined “health” exception that imposes abortion on demand at the VA even in states where abortion is illegal.
“Every week Pro-Life states are facing new attempts from Joe Biden to contradict the recent historic ruling of the Supreme Court,” said Texas Right to Life President Dr. John Seago. “The highest court in our country definitively asserted that each state should determine whether abortions are performed within their borders. In violation of Texas’ Pro-Life laws, the Biden administration is attempting to turn every VA into an abortion clinic. Veterans sacrifice so much to protect our God-given rights, the foremost of which is the Right to Life. Pregnant women deserve support, especially in the heartbreaking instances of sexual assault. Abortion is not health care; it harms our veterans and ends their children’s lives.”
Republican members of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs last year reminded the administration that federal law and regulations prohibit the VA from offering abortion or counseling for abortion. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough also failed to respond to a letter from U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) last month showing the illegality of the proposed rule.
Texas Right to Life noted that as recently as August, the VA even agreed that federal law does not permit them to commit abortions. “Under current regulation, VA doesn’t provide abortion or abortion counseling,” its website stated from March 2021 through August 2022. However, even though the federal law has not changed, the Biden administration recently scrubbed this statement from their website.
