Public Comment on Department of Veterans Affairs' Reproductive Health Services

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on VA-2025-VHA-0073. I am a researcher at the University of Chicago who focuses on the implementation and impact of policy and law on reproductive health access and outcomes. I write to strongly oppose the 2025 Proposed Rule on Reproductive Health Services.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, serving over 9 million veterans. This change will have a devastating nationwide impact. There are over 2 million women veterans in the U.S. and they are the fastest-growing cohort of veterans; the percentage of veterans who are women is expected to quadruple in the next 15 years. Nearly 300,000 women veterans who rely on VHA for care are of reproductive age. Access to abortion care is essential to a person’s freedom to make decisions about their bodies, lives, and futures, and to have control over their economic security. This proposed rule violates a core responsibility of VA, which is to provide needed care to veterans and to "promote, preserve, or restore the health" of their patients.