On December 22, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stopped providing abortion care and counseling in instances of rape, incest, or health emergencies. The VA will now only provide abortion care in extremely narrow life-saving circumstances. The Trump administration originally proposed this policy change in August 2025, but instead of following the formal regulatory process to finalize it, VA quietly announced in an internal memo that the policy is currently in effect. VA justified the questionable process using recent legal advice from the Department of Justice which was authored by Josh Craddock, a vocally anti-abortion Trump appointee. The effect is one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, as the new policy applies to all VA health care facilities across the United States, even in states that protect the right to abortion. 

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 13 states have banned abortion, and for veterans living in those states, the VA ban will severely limit access to urgently needed abortion care. This rule will force many who need abortion care to travel to another state, delay care, or carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.