The Senate voted 48 to 51 Wednesday to deny an act that would have struck down the Biden administration’s rule that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must provide abortions.
The resolution under the Congressional Review Act was introduced by Republican Senator Thomas Tuberville of Alabama in February in an attempt to reverse a mandate by President Joe Biden to force the tax-payer funded VA to provide abortion services, according to the press release. The resolution was shot down in the Senate today, leaving the Biden administration’s abortion policy in place. (RELATED: Abortion Pill Manufacturer Sues Biden FDA)
Terrence Hayes, VA press secretary said in a prepared statement that the VA is “committed to providing” abortions as a part of the agency’s health care options for veterans.
“As VA Secretary Denis McDonough has said, “Pregnant Veterans and VA beneficiaries deserve to have access to medically necessary world-class reproductive care when they need it most,'” Hayes said. “That’s what our nation owes them, and that’s what we at VA will deliver.”
A spokesperson for Tuberville directed the Daily Caller News Foundation to remarks the Senator made prior to the vote, arguing that “[t]axpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for abortions.” The spokesperson also noted the significance of the two Republicans who voted alongside Democrats against the measure.
This administration doesn’t get to change the law just because they feel like it—laws must be passed by Congress. https://t.co/tJM8MotdJF
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) April 19, 2023
The resolution was sponsored by 34 Republicans and Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and “endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro Life-America, March for Life, National Right to Life, Catholic Vote, Heritage Action, and Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee,” according to the original press release.
Biden removed the prior “exclusion” of abortion under the VA’s medical services on Sept. 9, 2022, according to the Federal Register.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends its medical regulations to remove the exclusion on abortion counseling and establish exceptions to the exclusion on abortions in the medical benefits package for veterans who receive care set forth in that package, and to remove the exclusion on abortion counseling and expand the exceptions to the exclusion on abortions for Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) beneficiaries,” the update read.
Many Americans immediately criticized the new rule, some arguing that the federal government could not use taxpayer funding to pay for abortions. A VA nurse filed a lawsuit after the rule was implemented, saying that the new provision would put her at odds with not only her religious convictions but Texas law, which prohibits the practice except in the case of saving the life of the mother, if she performed an abortion.
“Instead of providing our veterans with compassionate care and help, they are using taxpayer dollars to turn VA hospitals into abortion centers, even in states that have pro-life laws on the books,” Dannenfelser said. “The strong majority of Americans do not want their taxpayer dollars to fund the destruction of unborn children. Instead of listening to the will of the people and upholding current laws, Biden works with the abortion lobby to impose their radical pro-abortion agenda nationwide. We will continue to expose this extremism and hold them accountable to the American people.”
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