📢 Protecting Our Veterans Means Protecting Their Healthcare
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Friends, every day we try and bring you a new issue—lifting the curtain on what’s happening and why it matters. If you don’t see a topic today you are interest in, I recommend checking our archives. Chances are, we’ve already been in that fight, standing shoulder to shoulder on the frontlines for our rights, freedoms, rule of law, and democracy.
And speaking of frontlines—let’s never forget those who truly put everything on the line: our Veterans. They risk their lives to protect us, and we owe them not only gratitude, but action.
Our veterans deserve the right to live in dignity and make personal healthcare decisions free from political interference.
Yet today, that promise is under attack. Veterans are facing unprecedented attacks on the services they earned. The Department of Veterans Affairs is slashing up to 80,000 jobs1, canceling hundreds of contracts that fund essential care, and cutting $12 billion from medical services2, leading to closed clinics, canceled appointments, and severe staffing shortages in hospitals nationwide. Specialized support for mental health, cancer, prosthetics, and toxic exposure care is already being gutted, leaving veterans without the treatment they need. At the same time, cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are further threatening veterans’ stability—since millions rely on these programs for income, long-term care, and basic medical coverage beyond the VA. Together, these cuts amount to a betrayal of those who risked everything to protect us, leaving many veterans sicker, poorer, and more vulnerable than ever.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is also considering prohibiting the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) from providing abortion care to veterans and their dependents, except in life-threatening circumstances.
If Secretary Doug Collins follows through, it will roll back rights granted under the Biden administration and impose what Senator Patty Murray has rightly called "Trump's first national abortion ban" (Murray, 2025).
This decision would not only strip veterans of critical healthcare—it would betray them. The VHA is not just another healthcare provider; it is a lifeline. With 172 medical centers and over 1,100 outpatient clinics worldwide3, the VHA served 6.7 million veterans and survivors in 2024 alone, providing $187 billion in benefits.4 For many, it is the only healthcare option available. Eliminating abortion care—even in cases of rape, incest, or medical necessity—would have devastating consequences for the most vulnerable veterans and their families.
More than half of all female veterans of reproductive age—at least 345,000 women—live in one of 12 states where abortion is banned or severely restricted. These women volunteered to serve their country, and in return, they are being told that their government will not serve them.
Denying veterans this care is not only cruel—it is un-American.
Healthcare decisions must remain personal, grounded in the rights of families and the people directly receiving care. Veterans understand better than most that freedom means the ability to make decisions about one's own body and future. When politicians insert themselves into the exam room, they erode that freedom.
As the Center for Reproductive Rights has stated: "Collins has made clear his opposition to reproductive freedom, even for veterans who have sacrificed so much for this country" (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2025).
If the VA adopts this policy, it will abandon those who answered the call of duty, leaving them without options in their moments of greatest need.
This is not just a healthcare issue but an issue of justice, dignity, and national security. Veterans who are denied care will face greater physical, emotional, and economic harm, compounding the challenges they already carry from their service. Families will suffer. Communities will be destabilized. And morale among service members will erode as they watch their government break its promise to care for them in return.
We must speak up now. The Department of Veterans Affairs has not finalized this decision—it is open to public feedback. Our voices matter. Veterans stood up to protect us. Now it is our turn to protect them. We must demand that the VA preserve access to abortion care for veterans and their families, because no one who has served this country should be denied the right to control their own healthcare.
Protecting veterans means protecting their freedom. It means standing against government overreach into the most intimate decisions families face. And it means that in America, those who serve will not be abandoned, silenced, or stripped of their rights.
Veterans deserve more than empty thanks. They deserve healthcare that respects their dignity, sacrifices, and freedom.
Today’s Calls to Action
Click here to Protect the Abortion Rights of Veterans
Click here to Demand Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins protect access to abortion care for all veterans now.
Click here to Demand the Dept. of Veterans Affairs reject Trump’s executive order denying care to veterans
Click here to support Medicare for All
Click here to Save Social Security
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Virtual Vigil for Dignity Not Detention – We Stand with Dreamers
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Click here to send a letter to your Member of Congress and demand the release of all detainees who are not violent criminals, honor our promise to keep Dreamers safe, and pass immigration reform.
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https://www.reuters.com/world/us/department-veterans-affairs-cut-80000-jobs-part-trump-cuts-2025-03-05
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/06/dc-veterans-rally-va-program-cuts
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/aboutus/structure.asp
https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/11/11/fact-sheet-to-mark-veterans-day-biden-harris-administration-highlights-historic-care-benefits-new-actions-to-support-veterans-and-their-families-2
I served my country for 27 years in the United States AirForce. I think this action is BS of the highest order. For Trump, of all people, to try to make this decision for veterans when he was a draft dodging COWARD is sick.
Horribly and disgustingly sad 😔 that the America I grew proud of used, abused, and threw away its veterans that went into combat for the cause of the country 😢 💔
The current heads of gov't are abhorrent in action and deeds