WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a military spending bill containing language that would put a stop to the Biden administration’s efforts to subsidize abortion through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), though it remains to be seen if the provision will survive the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.
The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2025 states that none of the money it provides for “may be used to implement, administer, or otherwise carry out the Department of Veterans Affairs interim final rule published on September 9, 2022,” or for “any abortion, including through a medical benefits package or health benefits program that includes coverage of abortion,” except in cases of rape, incest, or “life-endangering physical” danger to a mother.
The rule in question added abortion to U.S. military veterans’ covered medical benefits, supposedly “because it has determined that providing access to abortion-related medical services is needed to protect the lives and health of veterans,” regardless of whether abortion is legal in the state in which a VA facility resides. Republican lawmakers and pro-life groups noted at the time that the rule was a violation of federal law prohibiting the VA from offering abortions.
“The FY25 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill (H.R. 8580) would block the Biden administration from funding elective abortions at Veterans Affairs medical centers with taxpayer dollars,” National Right to Life Committee president Carol Tobias said. “The Biden administration is using every lever of power at its disposal to promote abortion with no regard for the law and with no thought of the innocent unborn children who would die. National Right to Life is grateful to (Republican House Appropriations Committee) Chairman (Tom) Cole and House appropriators for their work and strongly supports this bill.”
The bill passed the House 209-197 on June 5, and now goes to the Senate for consideration. While Democrats’ narrow Senate majority all but guarantees an effort to remove the language, it remains to be seen if its inclusion will sink the spending package as a whole.
Earlier this year, the Biden VA took steps to further reshape VA services in accordance with left-wing reproductive ideology, announcing that it would “offer IVF (in vitro fertilization) benefits to qualifying Veterans regardless of marital status” and allow them to use donor sperm, eggs, or embryos, a reversal of old rules that limited IVF to married service members whose military service led to a health condition making them infertile but still capable of producing their own eggs or sperm.
President Joe Biden has vowed to “restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again” if the fall elections re-elect him and give him enough votes in Congress to codify a nationwide “right” to abortion, and his administration has touted a “whole-of-government effort to protect reproductive rights” (a popular euphemism for legal abortion on demand), including increased taxpayer funding for abortion at home and abroad and attempted waiving of federal safety rules against distributing abortion pills by mail.
In January, Biden met with his White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access to discuss “new actions” on Roe’s anniversary. Vice President Kamala Harris simultaneously announced the launch of a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour to highlight the left-wing administration’s pushback against pro-life legislation and new efforts to ensure that women can continue getting abortions in the U.S.
The administration described new moves to make sure “that women have access to contraception” and force employers to pay for contraception. It’s also working to advance “education” of patients and healthcare providers on ensuring “access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)” (the Biden administration is attempting to use the statute to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions under certain circumstances). The fact sheet also highlights a renewed push “to support safe access to legal medication abortion.”