ANALYSIS-Abortion wars deepen as Trump admin restricts veterans' access

* Trump administration reverses Biden-era policy

* Abortion rights advocates cry foul

* Planned Parenthood caught in crosshairs

By David Sherfinski RICHMOND, Virginia, Sept 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - T he Trump administration wants to limit abortion access at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), raising fears among advocates for reproductive rights that the president will use his second term to enact "extreme" new restrictions.

Last month, the VA moved to roll back benefits for department healthcare beneficiaries that include access to abortions and abortion counseling. The department said a Biden-era rule that had extended coverage - announced after the Supreme Court overturned a woman's constitutional right to an abortion - was "inappropriate as a matter of fact" and "legally questionable".

The notice said there would be an exception for abortions when the life of the mother is in danger. The Biden administration used the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling "to do the exact opposite of preventing overreach, creating a purported federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before and without regard to state law," said the notice, approved by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins.

Reproductive rights advocates have slammed the move. If put into effect, the proposed change "would become the most extreme abortion policy across federal agencies' health care programs," according to the National Women's Law Center.

Congressional Democrats have called the plan "reckless." "This proposed rule seriously calls into question whether the department is putting political allegiances and culture wars ahead of its sacred obligation to deliver quality, life-saving health care to veterans," the lawmakers wrote this week.

Anti-abortion advocates hailed the move. "The Biden-Harris Administration turned VA hospitals into abortion centers – violating longstanding law and betraying the will of the American people who strongly oppose forced taxpayer-funded abortions," said SBA Pro-Life America President Majorie Dannenfelser.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD Planned Parenthood centers, which provide sexual and reproductive healthcare, have also been the focus of legal battles under the Trump administration.

In July, a federal judge blocked enforcement of a provision in Trump's enacted tax and spending bill that would deprive Planned Parenthood and its members of Medicaid funding, saying it is likely unconstitutional. That provision - passed by Congress in July - prevented certain tax-exempt organizations and their affiliates receiving Medicaid funds if they continued to provide abortions.

That is not the only front in the U.S. abortion wars, however. A battle over abortion pills is still percolating more than a year after the Supreme Court declined to ban them.

In May, the Trump administration asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from three conservative states that want the Food and Drug Administration to limit abortion medication by mail, saying they were not pursuing the case in the proper venue. Anti-abortion activists had also eyed regulations Trump may use to further curtail access, with or without Congress.

Trump's team said during the campaign that he would not sign a national abortion ban if elected, and the Republican-controlled Congress has not mounted a serious effort at passing one yet. But abortion rights advocates are still wary of Trump's record, after he appointed three Supreme Court justices who voted in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized a constitutional right to abortion, in what was a 5-4 decision.

FOREIGN AID Soon after taking office, Trump also re-imposed restrictions on U.S. aid to overseas groups that perform or promote abortions, a policy that has ping-ponged back and forth since Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s.

During his first term, Trump went beyond past Republican presidents, expanding the pool of money subject to restrictions from about $600 million in family planning funding to the entire pot of U.S. global health assistance money – $12 billion or so. Abortion rights advocates say the so-called global gag rule threatens to significantly disrupt reproductive health services stretching from Kenya to Nepal.

The administration said in January that it would re-join an international pact known as the Geneva Consensus Declaration, stating that there is no international right to abortion.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)