U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich filed an amendment on Tuesday to codify a rule protecting veteran access to abortion in the case of rape, incest or the life and health of the pregnant person.
The legislation is an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. It will, if enacted, codify the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rule that protects both veterans and their beneficiaries’ access to abortion in certain circumstances.
Without legislation, agency rules are subject to change under each new executive administration. The amendment, if enacted, would protect service members, veterans and their families when they are stationed in states that ban abortion.
The appropriations bill is expected to come before the full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. Heinrich is a member of the committee.
This is one step of many Heinrich has taken to protect reproductive rights. He also cosponsored the Protecting Service Members and Military Families’ Access to Health Care Act, which seeks to codify the U.S. Department of Defense’s current policy of ensuring access to reproductive health care, including abortion, to service members and their families, regardless of the state the service member is stationed.
Heinrich said through a press release that it’s important to protect reproductive health care for military personnel, veterans and their families.
“Our military personnel, veterans, and their loved ones have sacrificed to defend our
freedoms. We need to protect their freedom to access the reproductive health care they
deserve. Instead, Republicans want to dismantle veterans’ access to abortion even in
cases of rape, incest, and where the life of the mother is at stake. That’s shameful. My
amendment will protect veterans from this attack. It’s the bare minimum we can do,” Heinrich said through the release.