Democratic lawmakers held a press conference this week to protest a proposed Trump administration rule that would reinstate long-standing protections for mothers and their unborn babies at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Their public statements were filled with inaccurate claims, exaggerated, sometimes hysterical rhetoric, and a complete disregard for what the rule does.
Representative Mark Takano, who opened up the show, claimed the rule would “put veterans’ lives at risk” and “strip essential healthcare” from women. This is an irresponsible and unfounded assertion. The rule in question would restore a decades-long policy that forbade abortion through the VA, with exceptions for rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk.
To suggest that this is somehow dangerous or extreme requires ignoring both the history of the VA and the contents of the proposal itself. Restoring these protections does not remove emergency care. It removes elective abortion, which has never been recognized as a legitimate function of the VA healthcare system.
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We then heard from Senator Richard Blumenthal, you know, the guy who falsely claimed he’d served in Vietnam when he actually never left the country during his tenure in the National Guard. Well, he feverishly warned that the rule would cause “chaos and confusion” for providers.
This claim is difficult to understand because the policy being reinstated is the same one that guided the VA for over twenty years without incident. What was confusing was the Biden administration’s abrupt decision in 2022 to inject abortion into VA policy. That action disrupted long-standing norms and ignored the legal and ethical boundaries respected by previous administrations. The Trump proposal corrects Biden’s overreach and reaffirms that abortion is not healthcare.
Representative Julia Brownley went so far as to call the proposal “cruel and dangerous,” and spoke of introducing legislation to enshrine abortion access permanently within the VA. Her response ignores the basic fact that the VA was never created to facilitate abortions. Her legislation would transform veterans’ healthcare into a vehicle for abortion access, regardless of what the law, public opinion, or conscience rights might require.
This is not a serious healthcare proposal. It is a political maneuver designed to entrench abortion as a government-backed service, paid for by taxpayers and shielded from scrutiny.
The most alarming claim came from Kai Hunter, who stated, “Women are going to die” because of the Trump rule. This kind of rhetoric is not only inaccurate but also irresponsible. The proposed rule does not remove life-saving care. It maintains apparent exceptions for the life of the mother. Suggesting otherwise is dishonest and designed to provoke fear rather than inform public discussion. Emergency medical treatment will remain available, just as it always has.
The truth is simple. This rule reinstates a clear, principled policy that prevents the VA from performing or promoting elective abortions. It respects the conscience rights of medical providers and state laws. It respects taxpayers who do not want their money used to end the lives of unborn children. And most importantly, it reflects the VA’s primary mission: providing actual medical care to those who served.
The pro-abortion outrage on display this week ignored these facts entirely. Instead, the press conference promoted the idea that abortion must be treated as standard medical care, without restriction, even within a federal health system. That is not the view of most Americans. It is not grounded in medical necessity, and it is a political position that treats abortion as a right above all others.
Veterans deserve medical care that honors their service and respects life. The VA was never intended to be turned into a political tool for the abortion industry, and this rule ensures that it will not be.
LifeNews.com Note: Raimundo Rojas is the Outreach Director for the National Right to Life Committee. He is a former president of Florida Right to Life and has presented the pro-life message to millions in Spanish-language media outlets. He represents NRLC at the United Nations as an NGO. Rojas was born in Santiago de las Vegas, Havana, Cuba and he and his family escaped to the United States in 1968.
