A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Veterans Affairs relating to "Reproductive Health Services".
What this bill touches.
Who it helps · who it burdens.
Who it helps
- veterans enrolled in VA health care who can become pregnantCancelling the rule puts abortion back in what VA covers when the pregnancy endangers the veteran's life or health or resulted from rape or incest, and puts abortion counseling back in as well (provision 2).
- CHAMPVA beneficiaries who can become pregnantSpouses, survivors, and certain children of veterans regain coverage for an abortion when the pregnancy endangers their life or health or resulted from rape or incest, and for abortion counseling; the cancelled rule had narrowed this to a physician-certified threat to life and had excluded counseling (provision 3).
- clinicians who deliver VA and CHAMPVA careThe care they can furnish as a covered benefit widens back out: abortion in the listed circumstances and abortion counseling are again inside the benefits package rather than excluded from it (provisions 2 and 3).
Who it burdens
- the Department of Veterans AffairsThe rule the Department issued is stripped of legal force, so the Department cannot apply it and must go back to administering the earlier coverage rules (provision 1).
The provisions, in plain language.
Cancels the Department of Veterans Affairs rule on reproductive health services published December 31, 2025. Once this resolution becomes law the rule has no legal force, so the VA coverage rules that were in place before it apply again.
Because the rule is cancelled, VA health care again covers an abortion for an enrolled veteran when carrying the pregnancy to term would endanger the veteran's life or health, or when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, and again covers abortion counseling. The cancelled rule had dropped all of those from the list of care VA provides.
For CHAMPVA, the VA program that covers certain spouses, survivors, and children of veterans, cancelling the rule again covers an abortion when the pregnancy would endanger the person's life or health or resulted from rape or incest, with the person's own account accepted as proof of rape or incest, and again covers abortion counseling. Under the cancelled rule, CHAMPVA covered an abortion only if a physician certified that the pregnancy endangered the mother's life, and covered no abortion counseling at all.