Trump Admin to Revoke Biden’s Veterans Affairs Abortion Rule

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is applauding the Trump administration‘s reversal of a Biden-era rule that permitted the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to perform abortions.

On Friday, the administration posted the proposed rule change in the Federal Register, which will be formally published on Monday, to prevent VA-run hospitals and other medical centers from performing abortions in nearly all cases. The new Trump administration policy will not prohibit care to pregnant women who are in life-threatening circumstances.

“Thank you to President Trump and [VA Secretary Doug] Collins. This is exactly the kind of leadership veterans deserve. Every veteran deserves a VA that respects the value of every life, especially the unborn,” Lankford told The Daily Signal, adding:

The Biden administration’s abortion rule at the VA broke long-standing federal law and should have never been implemented in the first place.

Reversing it sends a clear message: Government should protect life, not take it, and under President Trump, the mission of the VA is to serve veterans with dignity and care—not advance a political agenda.

Biden’s 2022 rule removed “the exclusion on abortion counseling and establish[ed] exceptions to the exclusion on abortions in the medical benefits package for veterans who receive care set forth in that package,” according to the Federal Register.

Lankford has long been a critic of the regulation, promulgated only months after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, contending that it was in explicit contradiction of Section 106 of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992. 

“Prior to the Biden administration’s politically motivated change in 2022, federal law and long-standing precedent across Democrat and Republican administrations prevented VA from providing abortions and abortion counseling. VA’s proposed rule will reinstate the pre-Biden bipartisan policy, bringing the department back in line with historical norms,” a Veterans Affairs spokesperson said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal.

Lankford has been an ardent champion of the pro-life cause since being in the Senate, receiving an A+ on the issue scorecard of the prominent pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List. In February of 2023, Lankford and more than 60 of his colleagues in Congress attempted to nullify the rule through a bicameral joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

Under the CRA, Congress can overrule federal regulations by a simple majority vote in the House and Senate, but they are still subject to presidential veto. With Democrats controlling both the White House and Senate at the time, Republicans were unable to overturn the Biden administration rule. 

One of the primary objections to the Biden rule by the lawmakers was that it forced American taxpayers to support abortion, regardless of whether they found it morally or otherwise objectionable. 

“No taxpayer should be forced to pay for abortion services that disregard the will of millions of Americans in states with legal protections for life, rightfully upheld by the Supreme Court [in 2022],” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said in 2023 of the rule. 

The joint resolution had the support of Heritage Action, CatholicVote, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and Susan B. Anthony Pro Life-America, among others.

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