The long-term impact of anti-abortion restrictions on regional health care is becoming more apparent, including through a significant new policy change that could harm members of the armed forces.
A recent anti-abortion decision from the Veterans Affairs Department, rolls back a 2022 policy, enacted under President Joe Biden, which offered abortion services to military veterans who needed to terminate a pregnancy caused by rape or incest. The Trump administration has now removed those protections. The VA can only provide an abortion if carrying the pregnancy to term would threaten the mother’s life, according to Mother Jones.
Prior to the Biden administration’s policy, the VA had not performed an abortion for more than 20 years. Of the approximately 300,000 women veterans who can access VA care, the Trump administration said the VA only performed about 140 abortions annually from 2022 to 2024 – raising the question of why such a policy, which provided care to a limited number of veterans, is a significant focus.
Varying statistics show that more than 10,000 women in the military experience sexual assault each year, RAND reported, with the Military Times saying this causes reduced trust in leadership from female military members. Mother Jones reported that more than half of women veterans live in states with current or expected abortion bans.
The impact of such restrictive conditions is not limited to individuals who are deprived of services. Recent studies have revealed that abortion bans lead to a reduction in practicing doctors, as providers relocate to communities with less restrictive policies. In a study conducted after Idaho implemented a strict abortion policy in 2022, researchers found that from August 2022 to December 2024, 94 of the state’s 268 OB/GYNs no longer offered medical services.
That means that in the span of two and a half years, 35% of Idaho’s existing OB/GYNs either retired, stopped practicing or left the state, rather than face the risk of legal consequences for providing regular care.
The report found that this may not have been the only state to suffer a loss of trained workers after adopting restrictive abortion policies, and “a reduction in the workforce may pose a threat to health care access and broader community health.”
