Pappas Helps Introduce Legislation to Block Trump Administration’s Rollback of Veterans’ Access to Reproductive Health Care

In direct response to the Trump Administration’s proposed rule to roll back abortion access for veterans, Congressman Chris Pappas, member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee (HVAC), helped introduce the Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act, which would guarantee that veterans and eligible dependents have the right to receive abortion care, medication, and counseling through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), without interference from political appointees or partisan agendas and protected by law.

“Taking away health care from veterans and their families who have served our country is outrageous. The Trump Administration is cruelly stripping away a critical VA resource from our veterans and their families, undermining their ability to make deeply personal medical choices about their bodies and what’s right for them, without even providing exceptions for rape or incest,” said Congressman Pappas. “For some veterans, VA is the only place they can obtain counseling and reproductive care, and I will do everything I can to fight this ban. Extreme politicians should stay out of other people’s health care decisions.”

The Trump Administration’s proposed rule would reinstate VA’s near-total abortion ban, including in cases of rape or incest. If finalized, this policy would strip access to care for veterans across the country, forcing them to either go without essential reproductive health services or seek care outside the VA.

In September 2022, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the VA used its rulemaking authority under the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996 to allow VA health care providers to offer abortion counseling and abortion services in cases of rape, incest, and the life and health of the veteran. Prior to that rule, VA enforced the most restrictive abortion ban of any federal health care agency. The Biden-era policy survived legal challenges and was finalized in March 2023.

On August 4, 2025, the Trump Administration issued a proposed rule to repeal the 2022 policy. While the new rule preserves a narrow exception when the life of the mother is at risk, it eliminates VA’s ability to provide abortion care in nearly all other cases. If implemented, the rule would once again make the VA the only major federal health provider with such an extreme restriction.

This bill would end the uncertainty created by shifting agency policies and eliminate ambiguity in the rulemaking process when it comes to veterans’ health care. It would enshrine in law a veteran’s right to access abortion care at VA, ensuring that reproductive health services are not subject to the personal views or political agendas of any future Secretary or administration. Veterans deserve consistent, guaranteed access to the care they’ve earned and not a patchwork of policies that change with every administration.

The Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act is endorsed by the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, Center for Reproductive Rights, Power to Decide, Reproductive Freedom For All, Minority Veterans of America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, National Council of Jewish Women, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Guttmacher Institute, National Partnership for Women & Families, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Reproductive Freedom Caucus, and the Democratic Women’s Caucus.

Read the full text of the bill here.