{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://rileymoore.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-moore-and-several-gop-lawmakers-back-trump-administration", "Congressman Moore and Several GOP Lawmakers Back Trump Administration Reversing Illegal VA Abortion Rule", "2025-09-04", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "House", "WV", "Riley M. Moore", "M001235", "rileymoore.house.gov", "rileymoore", "https://rileymoore.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 This week, Congressman Michael Cloud (TX-27), alongside Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), partnered with Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) to lead a group of Republican lawmakers in supporting the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to reverse a Biden-era rule that allowed taxpayer-funded abortion at VA facilities.\n\nUnder the new leadership of Secretary Collins, the Department of Veterans Affairs is taking necessary steps to rescind the Biden-era rule and restore a legal and medically appropriate standard of care. The proposed rule seeks to align VA practices with existing federal statutes and ensure that resources are focused on providing high-quality, life-affirming care to veterans and their families.\n\nIn the letter to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins, the lawmakers wrote:\n\n\u201cVA facilities should be empowered to provide the American veteran community with the best health care possible. The Biden rule conflated health care with abortion services, a practice that poses significant medical risks for pregnant women and directly intends to end the life of the second patient, the unborn child. Yet the Biden rule deemed that abortion was necessary to \u201cprotect the health\u201d of the mother-patient with a broad and undefined health exception for pregnant women in TRICARE and CHAMPVA. With this broad health exception to operate under, the Biden rule was implemented with a series of VA training materials, including videos, documents, and presentation slides, that gave guidance to health providers on how to promote abortion as the safest option for pregnant veterans and their beneficiaries. Without a narrower definition or gestational limit for this health exception, the VA has been promoting abortion on demand, at any point during pregnancy, so long as the mother-patient is able to secure a medical professional\u2019s opinion that having an abortion would be \u2018beneficial\u2019 to her health in any way.\u201d\n\nThe lawmakers submitted a formal comment backing the proposed change, which would restore compliance with federal law, including the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 and the Deborah Sampson Act of 2020.\n\nThis letter was signed by 72 lawmakers, 57 Representatives and 15 Senators.\n\n\u201cNo American should be forced to fund the destruction of life under the guise of health care,\u201d said Rep. Cloud. \u201cThe Biden administration overstepped its authority and ignored federal law to advance an anti-life agenda through the VA. I\u2019m encouraged to see the Trump Administration and Secretary Collins now working to reverse course and refocus the VA\u2019s mission on delivering real care to those who served.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs former chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, I applaud President Trump and Secretary Collins for ordering the VA to refocus on its mission of providing life-saving, life-enhancing healthcare to America\u2019s heroes,\u201d said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. \u201cBiden\u2019s illegal pro-abortion rule sought to turn VA facilities\u2014which should be places of healing\u2014into abortion mills performing abortions-on-demand. President Trump\u2019s compassionate reversal of Biden\u2019s illegal rule restores to the VA the decades-long bipartisan consensus that taxpayer dollars should not be used to perform, promote, or fund abortion.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Biden Administration was the most radically pro-abortion administration in history. Turning Veterans Affairs clinics into abortion mills was a disgusting violation of federal law and forced American taxpayers to fund the purest form of evil,\u201d said Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV). \u201cWe must protect the innocent lives of the unborn from the moment of conception. Thank you to President Trump and Secretary Doug Collins for ending this radical pro-abortion agenda to protect the most vulnerable of society and for prioritizing actual healthcare for veterans.\u201d\n\nThis initiative is supported by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Americans United for Life, Students for Life, Family Research Council, American Principles Project.\n\nRead more from the Daily Caller here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://rileymoore.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-moore-and-several-gop-lawmakers-back-trump-administration"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7382896728813648, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}