U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has introduced a bill that would require the Veterans Administration to provide quarterly reports on the number of abortions performed at VA hospitals and by affiliated providers.
The VA Abortion Transparency Act of 2024 would also require statistics on whether the procedure was surgical or conducted with medication, at what week it took place, and the total expenditures on abortions.
Alabama’s senior senator said, in a statement to Fox News Digital, that the VA is prohibited from providing abortion services by the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992.
“For the Biden administration to twist the law into something other than what Congress intended and force the cost on the taxpayer is a disgrace,” Tuberville said in the statement. “Our veterans deserve a VA that is 100% focused on ensuring they receive timely and quality care, not on implementing Joe Biden’s abortion-on-demand agenda.”
The 1992 law allows general reproductive health care but excludes abortions, with exceptions. Under the VA policy, a veteran or covered dependent is eligible for an abortion if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or their life or health is at risk.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are co-sponsoring the bill.
The VA began offering abortions for the first time in September 2022 following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, according to Military.com.
According to the VA, of the 88 abortions the VA provided through Sept. 30, 2023, 60 were medication abortions and 28 were surgical. Nine were because the life of the mother was endangered, and 15 were because the pregnancy was the result of rape. The remaining 64 were because the pregnancy threatened the mother’s health.
Tuberville last year held up hundreds of military promotions for months in a failed attempt to get the Pentagon to rescind a policy allowing service members to be reimbursed for travel if they or a family member had to go out of state for reproductive health care. He ultimately withdrew all of his holds in December.
According to Pentagon, that policy was used just 12 times from June to December of last year.
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