Trump Administration Ends VA Abortion Services and Counseling Under Biden Policy
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order, in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. February 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
The Trump administration has revoked a Biden-era policy that permitted the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide limited abortion counseling and abortion services through VA health care, including in cases of rape or incest, according to internal agency communications.
A December 18 memorandum authored by Joshua Craddock, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, concluded the VA lacks legal authority under current federal law to provide abortions to veterans or their dependents. This decision reverses a prior Office of Legal Counsel interpretation that allowed the VA to offer abortions when pregnancies resulted from rape or incest or threatened the patient’s life and health.
The VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, confirmed the agency will no longer provide abortion services or counseling effective immediately. The policy change permits emergency care for conditions such as ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages but bars elective abortions under federal law. The Trump administration argued the Biden administration improperly created a “federal entitlement to abortion” without regard to state law, drawing over 24,000 public comments on its proposed rule to bar such services through VA medical benefits.
Abortion rights advocates criticized the shift as callous and inhumane. Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward described it that way, while Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights called it an insult to veterans.
