An advocacy group representing veterans is suing the Trump administration for reimplementing a ban on abortion services and counseling to veterans and their dependents who become pregnant in dire circumstances, according to a copy of the legal complaint first shared with MS NOW.
The nonprofit organization Minority Veterans of America is bringing the lawsuit on behalf of all of its members harmed by the ban, including one member who is pregnant and unable to access those services. The 28-page complaint argues the Veteran Affairs Department violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which prevents agencies from acting “arbitrarily or capriciously,” in reimplementing the ban on abortion services for veterans and their dependents who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest or in cases when their health is endangered by carrying a pregnancy to term, as MS NOW first reported in December.
The anonymous member being represented said in a statement that she recently learned she was pregnant and felt “terrified” because she had multiple chronic health issues and a history of pregnancy complications. According to the complaint, her first-trimester pregnancy already has exacerbated some of her health issues and there is “a substantial risk” she will need to terminate the pregnancy to preserve her health. But due to the ban on abortion counseling, her VA providers cannot discuss “the full range of options” with her, the complaint states, and would be prevented from providing her with an abortion even if the pregnancy endangers her health.
“VA’s ban on abortion care and counseling is a direct threat to my health and my ability to parent my existing children and a betrayal of the sacrifices I have made for my country,” the member said in a statement provided by the National Women’s Law Center, whose lawyers are serving as co-counsel in the case, along with attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward and the firm Morrison Foerster.
A spokesperson for the VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW on Friday morning.
The reimplementation of the VA ban took effect in December, following a Justice Department memo that argued the Biden-era rule that allowed such abortions to be provided was not valid. Relying on the DOJ memo allowed the VA to implement the policy more than a month earlier than under the normal regulatory timeline.
The Biden administration began allowing the VA to provide those limited abortion services and counseling beginning in late 2022 as part of an effort to shore up abortion access after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. Republicans argued the policy amounted to federal overreach, given the VA did not cover abortions before 2022.
But the lawsuit argues the Trump administration has ignored a 1996 law that gives the VA secretary discretion to determine the provision of medical care and instead has relied on the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992, which prohibits the VA from providing abortions, as well as infertility services and pregnancy care. The complaint also argues the VA failed to reckon with the department’s prior findings, outlined in 2022, that providing limited abortion services was necessary to protect veterans’ health. And while the Trump administration has said the VA does not prohibit providing abortions in life-threatening cases, such as ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, the lawsuit points out that the regulatory text does not actually codify this exception for veterans — only for their dependents.
Lindsay Church, co-founder and executive director of Minority Veterans of America, told MS NOW that many of the organization’s members live in states with abortion bans and rely on the VA for all of their healthcare. She said the policy change has resulted in “confusion and fear.”
“This is a very challenging moment in your life, and now you’re having to figure out not only what does your future look like, but how are you going to go to the doctor, as well,” Church said.
Veterans in states with abortion bans are now forced to travel out-of-state for abortion care, which means paying for travel, food and lodging, and their VA providers cannot share information about where to access care in other states due to the abortion counseling ban. Veterans in states without abortion bans or severe restrictions and who can visit local clinics still have to contend with paying for the procedure itself, which can cost hundreds of dollars for pills or up to $1,000 if it’s a second-trimester pregnancy.
Ordering abortion pills online through lower-cost providers is another option for veterans across the country, but experts have said the ongoing legal battles over mifepristone, one of the two pills used in medication abortions, will likely create a chilling effect for people worried about the legality of the pills. (On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld telehealth access to mifepristone for now.)
According to Church, the members her group represents generally “don’t have the extra money to do this.”
“People are scared,” she added. “They’re living in fear.”
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population, with more than 2 million female veterans living in the United States, VA data shows. Almost 500,000 female veterans of reproductive age are enrolled in VA healthcare plans, with more than 112,000 enrolled in CHAMPVA, the program for dependents, according to VA data. Abortion rights advocates have pointed out that veterans now face more abortion restrictions than people in federal prisons and low-income people on Medicaid, who can access the procedure in cases of rape, incest or when their lives are endangered under the Bureau of Prisons and the Hyde Amendment, respectively. Active-duty service members have access to abortions under TRICARE if their pregnancies are the result of rape or incest or their lives are at risk.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., appears to be the first legal challenge to the ban. Earlier this year, Senate Democrats mounted a long-shot legislative maneuver to get the policy overturned, as MS NOW first reported, but that effort ultimately failed when all but two Senate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, blocked it.
“If the Congress won’t act, and if somebody else won’t act, then veterans ourselves will stand up and say, ‘fine, we will act, we will fight for our country and for our people the way that we have always done,’” Church said.
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