The Veterans Administration reportedly is training health providers that work with the agency to promote abortion as the safest option for pregnant veterans.
Although the health providers are responsible for giving accurate information to pregnant veterans, training videos prove otherwise, The Post Millennial reported Tuesday.
While the decision is up to the veteran on whether to keep her child or have an abortion, the information in the videos is framed where abortion is the safest option and pregnancy and childbirth are dangerous choices that will negatively affect the veteran in multiple ways, even going so far as to include death.
In a video about the legalities of abortion within the VA, the Interim Final Rule (IFR) instituted by VA Secretary Denis McDonough on Sept. 9, 2022, is discussed.
McDonough's IFR has allowed the VA to provide abortions funded by taxpayer dollars after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, The Post Millennial reported. It gives the VA authority to provide abortions when the pregnancy is a product of rape or incest, or when the pregnancy threatens the mother's health or life.
Providers are trained that these conditions are based on self-reporting from the mother. When the woman claims the pregnancy is a product of rape or incest, there is no further action taken by the VA in terms of investigation, examination (rape kits, etc.), and no interaction with any form of law enforcement. When the patient makes the claim, VA providers are instructed to immediately progress to the next phase.
The other factor that allows the VA to perform abortions is whether the health or the life of the mother is threatened by the pregnancy. But determining what constitutes a threat to a woman's "health" is a slippery slope, The Post Millennial reported.
Referring to "health" in the IFR, an abortion can be done if a patient claims it's not the right time financially, if the pregnancy makes her anxious, or if she believes it will threaten her socially. Abortion under this guideline can be construed as a quality-of-life issue.
On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, chair of the Subcommittee on Health, wrote a letter to McDonough demanding transparency regarding the VA providing taxpayer-funded abortions and about the training videos. The lawmakers gave the VA to Sept. 30 to respond or face a subpoena.
The VA's information in the videos presented to the providers cites the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which believes there should be no restrictions on when an abortion should take place, and the Guttmacher Institute, which had been a publishing arm of Planned Parenthood, The Post Millennial reported.
Newsmax reached out to the VA for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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