Leaked training videos produced by the Department of Veterans Affairs show the agency instructing providers to push abortion to veterans as the safest option in addition to providing guidance on terminology that should be used, eschewing "mother" for "veteran or person," for example.
The videos, first obtained by The Post Millennial (TPM), instruct providers that abortions protect the lives of mothers while childbirth puts a mother's life in danger. The videos, which are framed as reproductive health training, singularly focus on abortion, according to TPM.
Further, the videos provide mandates on other language that should be used, according to TPM:
- Do not use "baby" or "unborn child." Instead, use "fetus" or "embryo."
- Do not use "womb." Instead, say "uterus."
- Do not say "partial birth abortion." Instead say "intact dilation and evacuation."
"Americans will be shocked to learn that, not only is the VA performing abortions at hospitals across the county, but they are promoting and training their staff with radical pro-abortion ideology, counseling women veterans into having abortions," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to TPM.
In another video reviewed by TPM, it instructs providers that the VA is providing abortions to veterans — at taxpayer expense — due to the Interim Final Rule (IFR) instituted by VA Secretary Denis McDonough on Sept. 9, 2022. The IFR allowed the VA to provide abortions, in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade being overturned, under three conditions: rape, incest, or a threat to the mother's health.
Health and what it constitutes, under McDonough's IFR, has also caught the attention of Congress.
"The American taxpayers funding these abortion procedures at VA deserve to know how VA is carrying out the policy. ... We have yet to receive any information regarding what documented conditions led to a 'health' determination, which we consider an important element since VA notes the largest number of abortions performed were because of 'health' reasons," VA House Committee Chair Mike Bost, R-Ill., and Health Subcommittee Chair Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, wrote on Sept. 15, the date of their third letter to McDonough to get answers.
McDonough has also refused providing clarity to Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who has been a staunch opponent of the IFR since McDonough signed it. Again, when asked by Tuberville specifically about what constituted "health" vis-à-vis a cause for abortion, McDonough has been silent, according to TPM.
Tuberville continues to fight a similar battle against the Pentagon over its abortion policy and has been able to do something about it in the form of his unanimous consent holds on military promotions.
"Sen. Tuberville and Rep. Michael Cloud should be applauded for exposing that the VA has opened the door to abortion on demand," Dannenfelser said. "Right now, the VA is instructing its staff to completely sidestep state pro-life laws and provide abortions. We must continue to expose and stop this illegal extremism."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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