House GOP Spending Bill Would Block Veterans Affairs From Funding Sex Changes, Abortions
Micaela Burrow on June 14, 2023
A GOP-led spending bill that passed committee Tuesday would block the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from providing abortions or transgender hormones and surgeries, as well as flying pride flags at VA facilities.
The amendment, tacked on to the House Appropriations Committee’s $320 billion VA funding bill, passed on a party line vote of 34 to 27 as Republicans pledged to roll back the Biden administration’s expansive changes to gender and reproductive healthcare policies for veterans, according to Military.com. While the VA has in recent months begun offering abortions and has offered cross-sex hormones since 2013, it has not formally introduced sex-change surgeries following a 2021 administration rule.
“This is something that should be handled by Congress, not by the executive branch,” Republican Texas Rep. John Carter, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on the VA and sponsored the amendment, said, according to Military.com.
Carter was referring to the Biden administration’s VA new abortion policy introduced in response to the Supreme Court decision in June 2022 that handed authority over abortion rules back to state legislatures, Military.com reported. For the first time, the VA began offering federally-funded abortions in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is at risk.
The VA has administered 34 abortions under the new policy as of February, the department told Congress in a March letter, according to the outlet.
Democrats and Republicans sparred over whether the policy meets legal standards, Military.com reported. While Democrats say a 1996 law authorizing the VA to provide all necessary medical care supports the policy, Republicans argue that it violates a 1992 law that excludes most “infertility services, abortions or pregnancy care” from the VA’s allowed reproductive healthcare services.
The amendment passed Tuesday also adds language similar to the Hyde amendment, a longstanding law blocking federal funds for abortions except in very limited circumstances, according to Military.com.
It also prohibits VA facilities from flying any colors “other than the flag of the United States, the flag of a state, territory, or District of Columbia, the flag of an Indian tribal government, the flag of the department, the flag of an armed force, or the POW/MIA flag” after VA facilities faced criticism for raising the rainbow flag, Military.com reported.
The amendment is not likely to survive the corresponding Senate appropriations process, where Democrats hold the majority, Military.com reported.
Today, on International Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the service of Paula Neira and thousands of other Veterans who put their nation’s needs before their own. Thank you for your service.
https://t.co/aYwMsUphC3— Veterans Affairs (@DeptVetAffairs) March 31, 2022
The committee’s funding bill matches the Biden administration’s request for VA funding, a 6% increase from fiscal year 2023 levels, Military Times reported.
“This committee is wasting its time,” Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the ranking member of the committee’s panel on veterans issues, said, according to Military Times. “It should be focused on issues that face the veterans community every day: ending veteran suicide, decreasing the claims backlogs, ensuring the VA can attract and retain clinicians. But we are instead focusing on non-issues to bow down to the demands of the far right wing of the Republican Party.”
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