USA: Abortion is easier for former US soldiers

Access to abortion will be facilitated, with limits, for US veterans and the families of former soldiers in health centers dedicated to them, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Friday.

The US federal authorities thus respond to the desire of President Joe Biden to defend, as far as possible, a right recently taken from women in at least thirteen US states.

These federal services will thus provide “access to abortion if the life or health of the veteran was threatened in the event of a pregnancy carried to term, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest,” the ministry said in a statement. .

The latter “is taking steps to ensure abortion care for women veterans and other recipients of its services across the country,” the statement said, as several US states have already banned abortion outright, including in cases of rape or incest.

Thirteen US states have taken action against abortion rights

The department has nearly 1,300 health centers across the United States serving nine million veterans and their families. Physicians at these centers will be able to perform abortions even if the state where they work prohibits it, because “employees of the Department may provide authorized services as part of their federal employment, regardless of state restrictions,” the press release stresses.

The US Supreme Court, now very conservative, on June 24 abolished the constitutional right to abortion, protected for almost 50 years in the country, and returned to each state the power to legislate on the subject. Since the famous “Roe v. Wade” ruling was overturned, at least 13 states have banned or severely restricted access to abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which campaigns for access to contraception and abortion.

President Joe Biden, a staunch supporter of abortion rights, has since tried to limit the scope of these restrictions, but so far his efforts have been limited in scope in a country where presidential power, great as it may seem, is limited. to the jurisdiction of the States, Congress and the Supreme Court.