in effect
This is a final rule from the Department of Veterans Affairs that reinstates longstanding restrictions on abortion and abortion counseling within VA health care coverage. It reverses a 2022 policy change and restores the exclusions that had been in place since the VA medical benefits package was first created in 1999.
Starting January 30, 2026, abortion and abortion counseling are removed from the VA medical benefits package, meaning eligible veterans can no longer receive those services through VA facilities. The rule also removes the 2022 and 2024 exceptions that had permitted VA to cover abortions when the pregnancy threatened the patient’s life or health, or resulted from rape or incest. For CHAMPVA beneficiaries (family members of certain disabled or deceased veterans), a single narrow exception remains: a physician must certify that continuing the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s life. Medical procedures that are not classified as abortions — including treatment for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages — remain covered under both the VA medical benefits package and CHAMPVA. VA states it will issue separate guidance to clarify what life-saving care remains available.
Veterans who are enrolled in the VA medical benefits package and who seek abortion services or counseling through VA will no longer be able to obtain them there. CHAMPVA beneficiaries — primarily spouses and dependents of veterans with service-connected disabilities — face the same exclusion, retaining only the narrow physician-certified life-endangerment exception. Neither group is barred from seeking such care outside the VA system; this rule governs only what VA itself will provide or fund.