KEY VOTE: “YES” ON DISAPPROVAL OF VETERANS AFFAIRS ABORTION RULE (S.J. RES. 10)

The Senate will soon vote on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval that would block the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) interim final rule (IFR) that allows for the department to provide taxpayer funded abortions to retired service members, their spouses, and their dependents. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Biden administration has attempted to use every part of the vast federal bureaucracy to implement the Left’s pro-abortion agenda, including the Department of Defense and the VA. The Biden administration’s rule directly violates the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 (VHCA), which prohibits the VA from providing abortions and takes resources away from providing actual healthcare to veterans in need.

During his first term, President Biden has paid little attention to legality when making policy. Instead, his only concern has been placating his activist progressive base, and this rule is a continuation of that trend. As the Heritage Foundation lays out, the IFR is flatly illegal and should be struck down by courts on a variety of legal grounds. Section 106(a) of the VHCA reads: “In furnishing hospital care and medical services under chapter 17 of title 38, United States Code, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may provide to women . . . general reproductive health care . . . but not including under this section . . . abortions.” Not only does the Biden administration lack the authority to provide abortions through the VA, but Congress has explicitly banned the VA from doing so, meaning the Biden administration is once again flouting the supremacy of Congress.

On top of being illegal, the Biden administration’s rule was written in a duplicitous way to disguise its true intent, which is to provide unlimited abortions for any reason up to the point of birth. Under the IFR, abortions are technically limited to cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the veteran would be endangered by carrying the pregnancy to term. However, the life of the veteran exception is extremely broad, and could be interpreted to include mental or emotional strain, as nothing in the IFR excludes these reasons from being included in the assessment. As the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists has stated, there is a fundamental difference between abortion and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatments result in the loss of life of her unborn child. Premature delivery, which attempts to preserve the life of an unborn child, may be medically necessary to save a mother’s life. The purpose of an abortion is to terminate a baby’s life.

As conservatives have rightly pointed out, ultimately this rule is about placating the pro-abortion Left. In the wake of the Dobbs decision, the Biden administration has been looking for ways to defy the laws of pro-life states and provide abortions in places where they are now illegal. The Heritage Foundation has pointed out that this rule is perhaps the most aggressive of those attempts, as it “essentially provides a get-out-of-jail-free card to federal abortionists who would otherwise be committing an illegal act.” In states that have banned abortions, VA facilities will use resources– that should be used to provide care to veterans– to take the lives of innocent unborn babies that otherwise would have been protected by state law.

The Biden administration’s newest attempts to make abortion universally available up to the moment of birth must be stopped. The IFR, which flouts Congress’s explicit prohibition on the VA providing abortions, is plainly illegal. Senators should vote in favor of Senator Tuberville’s resolution of disapproval and block the Biden administration from turning VA clinics into abortion clinics.