Biden Sends A Clear Message that State Laws Won’t Stop Him

The Biden Administration is now using Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospitals to skirt abortion laws at the federal and state level. Recently, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough disclosed to Senators that the VA medical system performed is first abortion; but section 106 of the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 prohibits the VA from doing this. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, who has always been a massive champion for life, sent a letter to Secretary McDonough expressing his concerns. In the letter Senator Lankford states:Show more

"Only Congress can change federal law, and Congress has held for the past 30 years that the VA is not permitted to offer abortion services. While activists and even my colleagues in Congress—including some who have written to you to encourage you to promote abortions in states where unborn children’s lives are protected, such as Oklahoma—may desire for you to use your authority to usurp Congress to allow the VA to provide, or even pay for abortions through rulemaking, that would be a direct violation of the laws you swore to uphold and follow. Additionally, such action would further erode the integrity of the rulemaking process."

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, we’ve told you that the radical Left will continue to force its agenda on the American people, and we’re seeing that play out in the biggest way right now. Senator Lankford joined Sekulow today to weigh in on this:

"This is President Biden trying to find every way he can to expand abortion in America. He is absolutely obsessed with increasing the number of abortions in America, and his new way of doing that is turning VA Hospitals into abortion clinics."

It seems the Biden Administration has literally partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs in its commitment to the abortion industry, and it’s no secret that Planned Parenthood is controlled by politicians. This is all a reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Senator Lankford provided an example:

"They’ll say, for instance in the VA Center, “Well this is about rape and incest” or “this is about health of life of the mother,” then they specifically state . . . no police reports, no questions on this. If you come in and say “this is a rape,” we’re not going to do any follow-up, we’re just going to take your word on it . . . we’re going to continue to be able to move forward on it; and it’s also health of the mother, so that would be any reason at all . . . financial health of the mother . . . I’m just not comfortable at this stage in my life . . . all of those things will qualify for them to do abortions at any single stage. Even states that come in and say, “We’re going to limit abortion. We won’t do late term abortion.” The VA is already saying, “No, we’re going to do abortions at any stage, any time."

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Colonel Wes Smith explains just how brazen this move by the Biden Administration is:

"It’s not known in the civilian world much, but there’s a program called “CHAMPVA,” it’s a civilian health and medical program through the veterans administration, and people that are eligible for this are not just the veteran with a service connected disability, but their spouses and their children up to age 23 . . . these people would also be available, if they chose to do so, for abortion services . . . I checked this morning with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are 4.7 million veterans with a permanent, service connected disability in the United States. They would be eligible for the abortion services, but so would their spouses and their children . . . this pool is much larger than people realize."

The ACLJ is taking a legal position on this move by the Department of Veterans Affairs. We will file an official response by October 11th. It’s clear that as we get closer and closer to the midterms, the Left can’t flaunt any economic success, so they’re now campaigning on taking innocent lives.

In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed into law sweeping legislation that expands abortion in his state. ACLJ Senior Counsel CeCe Heil provides context:

"Governor Newsom signed a whole packet of abortion bills . . . including the one that we’ve been fighting all along that prohibits a person from being criminally or civilly liable for a perinatal death, and they did put in “due to causes that occurred in utero," but the problem is you can’t investigate. They don’t allow you to investigate, so you don’t know what those causes are. So, literally, you could not be criminally or civilly liable for a perinatal death, and that means the death of a child that is born . . . up to 28 days [after birth]."

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast also includes a discussion with ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Professor Harry Hutchison on the state of our country’s current inflation crisis and how the American people tend to side when things are bad economically.