Sep. 13—WASHINGTON — Democrats in the U.S. Senate are confident the Department of Veterans Affairs can implement a new policy that allows its doctors to provide abortions when the pregnancy threatens the patient’s life or health, or when it’s the result of rape or incest.
The VA announced the new policy last week to cheers from Democrats who have been searching for ways to broaden abortion access in states where the procedure has been outlawed since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in June. Abortion counseling and services would be provided to pregnant veterans and their beneficiaries in limited circumstances.
But Republicans have sharply criticized the VA for changing its long-standing no-abortions policy, with some pledging to keep the status quo.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth said this week that because VA hospitals are linked to teaching hospitals, those health care providers will have physicians on staff with the medical knowledge to perform the procedure.
In addition, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the Department of Justice would protect doctors from prosecution in states where abortion is now banned or heavily restricted.
“One of the strengths of VA health care is that every major VA hospital is affiliated with a teaching university, a medical university teaching facility,” Duckworth said. “So the skill, the ability to perform the procedures will be there.”
VA doctors also aren’t necessarily licensed in the state where they practice, she said, which means they likely would not face legal ramifications in states that have banned or restricted abortion.
VA doctors’ medical licenses could not be revoked for following VA abortion policy when it differs from state law “because many of them don’t have a license in that state because they are operating at the federal level,” Duckworth said.
Warren said she has “no doubt” that if a state’s attorney general or other prosecutor tries to put a VA health care provider in prison for acting in line with the VA’s new abortion policy, the U.S. Department of Justice would go to bat.
“The Department of Justice is there to defend the VA when the VA is acting in accordance with federal law,” Warren said.
Republicans pledged opposition.
“This proposal is contrary to long-standing, settled law and a complete administrative overreach,” Illinois Republican Rep. Mike Bost, ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement last week. “I oppose it and am already working to put a stop to it.”
Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde led a group of 45 GOP lawmakers in a letter pressuring the VA to reverse course. Four other Georgia Republicans — Drew Ferguson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jody Hice and Barry Loudermilk — signed onto the letter.
“Make no mistake: your department’s decision to expand and promote abortion services — ‘regardless of state restrictions’ — is blatantly illegal,” the letter says. “You must reverse course immediately, or we will be forced to take further action to hold your department accountable for this overreach.”
The sharp GOP criticism of the new abortion policy is expected to lead to court challenges. If upheld, it could mean that a future Republican president would push the VA to reverse course, banning all abortions once again.
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who said shortly after the announcement the decision was “grotesque and illegal,” said this week that he expects a future Republican president would undo the policy if it lasts that long.
“Well, if the current president switched it, a future president could switch it back,” Rubio said.
The flip-flopping on an abortion policy isn’t without precedent.
The so-called Mexico City Policy, or global gag rule, changes every time control of the White House moves from one party to the other.
Originally implemented by President Reagan in 1984, the policy, when in place during Republican presidencies, prevents nongovernmental organizations…
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