On behalf of The National Catholic Bioethics Center, The Catholic Medical Association, The National Association of Catholic Nurses, USA, and The National Catholic Partnership on Disability, we write to support your Proposal to reinstate the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the Veterans Administration (VA) medical benefits package, which was removed in 2022. We also support the reinstatement of the exclusions on abortion and abortion counseling for Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) that were removed in 2022, and the removal of the unnecessary exclusion which would allow an exception for protecting the life of the mother. As we will indicate, abortion does not represent a necessary “treatment” to save the life of the mother.
