Washington, DC – Last night, 50 Senate Republicans voted against overturning a nationwide ban on abortion care and counseling at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA), which the Trump administration quietly put in place during the winter holidays.
The vote was on a Congressional Review Act resolution, introduced by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), that would overturn the Trump-Vance administration’s rule to ban abortion care and counseling for veterans and their eligible dependents, even in cases of rape or when their health is in danger. Two Republican Senators, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), joined with Democrats in voting in favor of this resolution.
Jackii Wang, senior legislative analyst for federal reproductive rights and health at NWLC Action Fund, issued the following statement in response:
“Despite all their bluster on the campaign trail about ‘leaving abortion to the states,’ Donald Trump and JD Vance immediately showed their cards by trying to secretly implement a nationwide abortion ban. It is disgraceful that most Senate Republicans broke their promise to care for our veterans by voting to protect Trump’s nationwide, draconian abortion ban. This ban makes it clearer than ever that the end goal of this administration and its allies is to ban abortion nationwide for everyone, not just for our veterans. We will never stop fighting for the freedom to make our own decisions about our bodies, lives, and futures.”
NWLC Action Fund and its sister organization, the National Women’s Law Center, are leading efforts to repeal the Trump administration’s rule to ban abortion care and counseling at the VA. This week, NWLC Action Fund co-led 32 organizations in urging Congress to pass this critical resolution. In February, NWLC and its partners hosted a briefing with Senator Blumenthal, as well as women veterans, who shared their reproductive health care stories and highlighted how the VA’s abortion ban would harm veterans like themselves. You can read more about these women veterans’ stories here.
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