A group of Republican senators and representatives are fighting to block a new Biden administration rule ordering Veterans Administration hospitals to perform illegal abortions.
Thirteen Republican senators and twenty-six members of the House of Representatives issued a public comment letter opposing a new Department of Veterans Affairs interim final rule (IFR) that defies state and federal laws to illegally offer abortions through the VA.
Under the Biden scheme, VA hospitals would be required to offer unrestricted abortions in states where the practice is regulated, including late-term and partial-birth abortions illegal in those states, and forces taxpayers to pay for it.
“There are no limits in the IFR on late-term abortions or gruesome procedures like live dismemberment abortions,” the lawmakers write.
The federally-funded abortions would not be required to meet any health or safety standards.
“There are no required qualifications for health care providers who perform abortions. There are no informed consent policies, or reasonable standards for medical evaluations, such as in-person evaluations to ensure that an abortion would not lead to further medical complications or harm for women,” they add.
The rule comes after a call by Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren to erect “abortion camps” in national parks, where taxpayer-funded doctors would literally perform abortions in tents in the woods.
Not only does the Biden scheme violate state laws, but it also violates a 30-year-old federal law prohibiting the use of federal funds to perform abortions. The lawmakers demand Biden VA Secretary Denis McDonough repeal the rule.
“The VA does not have the power to override an Act of Congress to impose its preferred policy of taxpayer-funded abortion on demand until birth,” the lawmakers write.
“Tragically, the IFR is the latest in a long string of actions the Biden Administration has taken to promote the killing of unborn children through abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” they add.
“We demand that you immediately rescind the IFR and revert the VA’s policies to the long-standing prior regulation excluding abortion and abortion counseling from the VA’s medical benefits package as well as the CHAMPVA program, in conformity with the law and congressional intent,” the continue.
The lawmakers cite the federal law making the Biden scheme illegal, writing:
Section 106(a) of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 (VHCA) restricts the VA from providing abortions: “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 . . . [g]eneral reproductive health care . . . but not including under this section . . . abortions.”
So while the VA claims that access to abortion is “needed,” Congress has unequivocally prohibited it. Consistent with the 1992 law, the VA’s former regulations governing its medical benefits package promulgated in 1999 stated that “the ‘medical benefits package’ does not include . . . abortions and abortion counseling.”
U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) led the letter, which was also signed by Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R- Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.).
U.S. Representative Michael Cloud (R-Texas) led the effort in the House of Representatives.
Michael Brigham
Michael Brigham has written for American Action News since the summer of 2019. His areas of expertise include foreign affairs, government, and politics, but regardless of the subject matter, he has a nose and an insatiable appetite for news. In his free time, he enjoys reading nonfiction, watching a mix of comedies and true crime documentaries, and spending time away from the swamp hiking in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Vets need them OR privitize for the HC market alone
It proves the fact that Biden is a continuous serial murderer.
This is illegal, immoral, and outrageous. People proposing these actions need to be removed from office.
Why do we bother with elections and paying Congress, when we have a dictator in the WH?
Morons Inc even refused Biden a membership in their organization!
This is the lowest proposal Biden has tried to do. It must be stopped. No VA hospital should have to participate in this Vile procedure.
This angers me being a veteran. The VA hospitals are overwhelmed taking care of the veterans. This administration prior to being elected has voiced destroying the VA care for the veterans by offering gender change surgeries and now abortions. The VA hospitals are designed to take care of the Veterans not to take care of the “woke” projects.
The retribution of the Democrat party turning America into a modern Sodom and Gomaha is drawing closed everyday!
I pray every morning, noon and night that the fake, worthless and useless President Biden be removed from office. I leave it up to God to determine the removal process!
I pray every morning, noon and night that God will remove the depraved, useless and worthless individuals in the White House.
Those individuals are bent on turning America into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.
I leave it up to God on the removal process since the voters of America don’t seem to be able to do so!
This administration has not given a fig leaf about the separation of powers from day 1.
I doubt this story very much . And late term abortions only happen in America in medical emergencies to save women’s lives . The conservative media continues to spread the lie about pregnant women who are carrying normal, healthy fetuses capriciously having abortions at t6he last minute . This just doesn’t happen !
Biden and his DemoRat/Leftist/Liberal cohorts are Satanic to their core. I can’t believe any sane person would vote for these lying, deceiving monsters. But, water seeks it’s own level.
None of the evil things they do surprise me anymore.
This old man has no class!!!!!!!! What a sorry excuse ……..
What a lawless scummy scab of a person. What rock did the filth turn over to find this slug?
Maybe the VA needs to mandate birth control methods instead of accommodating those that missed their pill or had a wild night in bed unprotected by even a condom. Women need to say Whoa Man! That’s why we’re named whoa man! Get it! For those that continue to spread…I hope those legs grow together! LOL
This should be settled in the courts. But we forget that Dobbs didn’t make abortion illegal; it simply returned the issue to Congress and the states.
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