Just three months after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Former President Biden issued an illegal directive to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ordering the VA to include abortions among Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) and VA healthcare benefits. CWA voiced strong criticism of the 2022 rule change to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Biden Administration’s VA ignored the complaint and moved forward with the rule change.
After three years of coerced taxpayer coverage of abortions at the VA, the Trump Administration has moved to correct former President Biden’s error. CWA strongly supports the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new proposed rule to reinstate the lawful exclusion of abortions and abortion counseling from CHAMPVA and VA medical benefits packages.
The Biden-era VA rule is a plain violation of longstanding federal law, and CWA firmly believes that the Biden-era order defies the will of hard-working American taxpayers while harming veterans and their families. Our comment in support of President Trump’s new rule explains why:
CHAMPVA and VA healthcare benefits are federally funded programs; as such, they must operate in accordance with the rule of law and the will of the American people. The Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 (VHCA) stipulates that American taxpayer dollars may not fund abortions in any federal medical benefits program for veterans and their dependents. Americans support the VHCA: sixty percent oppose or strongly oppose taxpayer funding of abortions. The illegal, coerced taxpayer funding of abortion in VA hospitals initiated under the Biden Administration is a grave violation of the American conscience and an abuse of hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
CWA also rejects former President Biden’s claim that women “need” abortions. Abortion is an affront to womanhood. As long as the VA provides abortions, it cannot offer quality care to female service members and veteran families. Pregnancy is a unique female capability worthy of unique support in our military—not violent termination. As a leading pro-life organization, CWA knows that abortion harms women.
Studies have shown that women who undergo abortions are 81% more likely to experience adverse mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, suicidal behavior, substance abuse, insomnia, nightmares, isolation/loneliness, and regret. According to the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 60% of women report emotional distress after an abortion, and 30% of those experience “severe” distress. The Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey classifies abortion as a risk factor for self-harm and mood disorders.
Some of the medical and physical risks of abortion include cervical damage, uterine scarring, future premature birth(s), future miscarriage(s), future ectopic pregnancies, heavy bleeding, sepsis, placenta previa, perforation of the uterus, and, in some cases, death. One abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 44%.
Beyond harming women, abortion is never medically necessary—there is no medical condition that requires an induced abortion to save a woman’s life. There are legitimate, ethical, medical solutions to every life-threatening prenatal condition, such as pre-eclampsia, hemorrhage, infection, and cardiovascular collapse. To be clear, life-affirming prenatal and postnatal treatment for veterans and CHAMPVA beneficiaries includes ectopic pregnancy care and miscarriage management. These treatments are explicitly not abortions and should be provided to women in need of these procedures at VA hospitals.
Abortion also ends the life of a human being. Ninety-six percent of biologists agree that human life begins at conception—the life of a military child, then, begins with fertilization. At VA hospitals, that means an abortion ends the life of a military child.
Female servicemembers, veterans, and veteran family members deserve comprehensive, life-affirming, and life-saving pregnancy care in VA hospitals, and their unborn sons and daughters deserve the dignity befitting the children of servicemembers. Abortions are always cruel—never lifesaving, necessary, or beneficial. Life-affirming care delivers quality treatment while preserving human life and dignity for mothers and their unborn children.
CWA affirms that abortion is not healthcare because pregnancy is never a disease or a disorder. Healthcare is broadly defined as “the field concerned with the maintenance or restoration of the health of the body or mind.” Abortion both intentionally ends a human life in utero and harms a woman’s body and mind, and it is not “maintenance” or “restoration”; it is intentional killing. CWA is confident that the Veterans Administration exists to honor and extend the lives of United States veterans and their loved ones, not to illegally end lives via abortion on the taxpayers’ dime.
CWA’s full comment to the Department of Veterans Affairs can be accessed on our website.
Please join CWA in prayer as we work to see the Department of Veterans Affairs proposed rule change confirmed for the good of our nation’s veterans, military families, and hard-working taxpayers.
