This week, First Liberty filed a federal lawsuit seeking to
block the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) new rule titled
“Reproductive Health Services” that immediately allowed elective abortions at
VA medical clinics.
We filed suit on behalf of nurse practitioner Stephanie
Carter whoworks at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas. She
has religious objections to performing, prescribing, or counseling for
abortions and working in a facility that engages in such activity for reasons
other than to save the life of the mother. She twice requested a religious
accommodation, but was told that no process exists to review such requests.
The VA announced the rule in September, claiming it was
necessary “because it has determined that providing access to abortion-related
medical services is needed to protect the lives and health of veterans.” There
is no mention of gestational age limits. The rule allows for abortions whenever
they can be justified as “needed to promote…the health of the (mother).” The
rule received more than 50,000 public comments, many of which opposed the VA’s
decision.
Our lawsuit explains that this new rule is illegal because
it disregards longstanding federal law prohibiting VA clinics from performing
abortions and fails to account for the sincerely held religious beliefs of
medical providers who are impacted by the rule. But in its zealous pursuit of
radical policy, the Biden administration appears willing to violate the law.
The 1992 Veterans Health Act explicitly prohibits VA
clinics from performing abortion services. By enacting and now enforcing the
rule, the VA is far outside its scope of authority. First Liberty attorneys
Danielle Runyan and Christine Pratt explained in a recent op-ed for Stars and Stripes:
“Once again, the Biden administration seems
ignorant of the law, or just doesn’t care. The new VA rule disregards
longstanding federal law that prohibits VA clinics from performing abortions.
Since 1992, Congress has prohibited abortions at VA clinics in Section 106(a)
of the Veterans Health Care Act, which provides that ‘the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs may provide to women…general reproductive health care…but not including
under this section…abortions.’”
Runyan and Pratt further point out that “while federal law
protects the rights of VA staff who don’t want to perform or assist with
abortions…there is no provision within the VA rule explaining how religious
accommodations will be processed.” The VA’s enforcement of its invalid rule
could have devastating consequences for our client, as well as all employees at
VA clinics who have a religious objection to participating in providing
abortion services.
In Carter’s case, she is also now at risk of violating the
Texas Human Life Protection Act that expressly prohibits abortions. Because the
facility where she works is under concurrent jurisdiction with the State of
Texas, medical providers there are required to comply with Texas law. While the
administration maintains that the rule takes priority over state laws
prohibiting abortion, the Supremacy Clause does not apply because the rule is
invalid as a matter of law. So, under Texas law, Carter could face a felony
conviction with no less than $100,000 in civil penalties for each violation and
the loss of her nursing license.
The VA abortion rule and the lack of a religious
accommodation process is only the latest in the administration’s terrible track
record on religious liberty.
The Department of Defense vaccine mandate has forced
thousands of service members to choose between their religious faith or serving
their country. First Liberty continues to fight on behalf of U.S. Navy and Air
Force service members whose religious accommodation requests have been denied.
As one federal court pointed out when it granted protection to our clients, the
Navy’s religious accommodation process is, “by all accounts … theater. The Navy
has not granted a religious exemption to any vaccine in recent memory. It
merely rubber stamps each denial.”
Not only has the administration shown a particular disdain
for service members who want to serve in a manner consistent with their
religious beliefs, it has repeatedly pushed policies that would harm the rights
of religious Americans in the health industry. For example:
- In
October, First Liberty delivered a compelling 42-page public comment to
another proposed rule, commonly known as the “transgender mandate,” which would roll back extensive
civil rights protections for Americans of faith in healthcare.
- The
Department of Health and Human Services revoked several important religious liberty
protections and pursued regulations that could harm faith-based
foster-care and adoption agencies, religious employers, charities,
universities, schools, hospitals and healthcare professionals.
The Biden administration has wielded and abused the power
of the federal government to put religious Americans in the crosshairs. What
hope is there that it will not use this VA abortion rule to do the same?
Given this pattern of hostility and violations, people of
faith need to remain vigilant. The Biden administration has constantly used the
alphabet soup of federal agencies to target and harass religious Americans.
It’s increasingly clear that these policies are aimed at trampling the rights
of religious healthcare professionals and making them conform to extreme
ideology.
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