AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Today, September 3rd, is the last day for public comment on a newly proposed rule for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The draft regulation would ban VA doctors from performing most abortions.

We’re joined now by Guardian investigative reporter Aaron Glantz, who has a recent piece headlined “New Trump rule to ban VA abortions for veterans even in cases of rape and incest.”

This is the vice chair of Texas Democratic Veterans, Melissa Harcrow, speaking to KVUE-TV.

MELISSA HARCROW: If they can’t access contraceptives or abortion services in case they are sexually assaulted again, this can pose a barrier to them improving their quality of life. … It’s very upsetting, because, you know, I wonder: Are they going to reduce access to Viagra for male veterans?

AMY GOODMAN: So, Aaron Glantz, you wrote this piece for The Guardian about what is being proposed right now. Explain what it is and why it’s so important for the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide access to abortion.

AARON GLANTZ: Well, what the VA is doing here is saying that they will, going forward, if this is adopted, not provide abortion services, including not only procedures, but also counseling and prescription medication, even in cases of rape or incest.

And this is a — the important thing to know about the veteran population is that there’s a very high rate of sexual assault, both in the military itself and in the veteran population. So, according to VA surveys, one in three female veterans was sexually assaulted in the service. The rate of intimate partner violence for female veterans is also well higher than people who never served in the military.

And so, basically, what the Trump administration is saying here is that if you get pregnant in one of these ways, and — then they will not help you terminate your pregnancy.

AMY GOODMAN: You did write to the press secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. What was their response?

AARON GLANTZ: They pointed out, correctly, that the VA has actually not been providing abortion services for that long. They only began providing abortion services, in a very limited fashion, in 2022 under President Biden. Of course, this was after the Dobbs decision made abortion unavailable in most cases in many U.S. states, including Texas, Florida, Georgia and other states with large and growing populations of female veterans.

The VA also cited a 1992 law, which they say bans the agency from carrying out abortions. But that same law, legal experts say that it’s been superseded, and the VA provides a lot of services that are not allowed under that law — for example, maternity care and IVF even. And so, you know, the legal experts that I talked to said that that was a bit of a red herring.

Finally, the VA said that because they’re providing so few abortions at the agency, that they have a safety concern. And, you know, the female veterans that I spoke to for the story were — I cannot communicate to you how really deeply upset they were about what they see as fighting for freedom when they’re in uniform, only to have their own freedoms taken away, their freedom to choose what they do with their own body, when they get out.

AMY GOODMAN: Aaron, Trump’s VA secretary, Doug Collins, is a staunch abortion opponent. As a congressman, he received an A-plus rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and established the right to abortion as “barely coherent.” Can you talk about his stance?

AARON GLANTZ: I mean, Secretary Collins was a former congressman from Georgia. He said that — at a time when Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger and other Georgia Republicans were very clear that Joe Biden won the state in 2020, he was a very loud election denier. Now that Trump has been elected, he’s been put in the chair at the Department of Veterans Affairs as the secretary, you know, leading this rulemaking. And as you mentioned, he has a very staunch anti-abortion stance.

And so, you know, it’s — the VA has undertaken this rulemaking process to reverse what President Biden did after the Dobbs decision. And as you mentioned in your intro, there’s been a public comment period. As of my writing, nearly 20,000 people have written in — I guess it’s more than that by now — and that included one woman that I spoke to, who lives in Georgia, who told me about an abortion that she had when she was in the Air Force in the 2000s. And she said that that abortion saved her life, because at the time she was in an abusive relationship. And she said, “Either he,” her boyfriend at the time, “would have hurt me, or I would have hurt myself.” And she said that “My abortion allowed me, you know, to continue to go on.” And now she’s a mother of a teenage son herself.

So, I think that this is something that has really struck a chord in the veteran community, especially among female veterans, who are the fastest-growing segment of the veteran population.

AMY GOODMAN: You have an ominous quote in your piece. “'Women are going to die,' predicted Caitlin Russell, a former US army captain who served two tours in Afghanistan and studies female veterans’ health at the University of Pennsylvania.” As we wrap up, your final comment? And what is the schedule after the public comment period ends today?

AARON GLANTZ: Well, I mean, after the public comment period ends today, it’s going to be up to the agency. But I think we may see more on this. There’s a number of press conferences on Capitol Hill today with congressional Democrats speaking out. There will be attempts at legislation, I’m sure, and I think we’ll probably hear from Congress. But this is really going to be in the administration’s — really, the ball is in their court.

Caitlin Russell, who gave me that quote, “Women are going to die,” the two-tour veteran of the war in Afghanistan who studies women’s health, what she was referring to was some of the troubling cases that we’ve seen out of states like Texas, where, because the only exception is for the life of the mother — and there is an exception for the life of the mother in the VA abortion policy proposal. But what she said is that because there’s no real exception or miscarriage care, what we’ve seen in places like Texas is women bleeding out before they could get that medically necessary abortion. And she’s worried that that will happen to veterans who live in some of these states where abortion access is very limited outside of the VA.

AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Glantz, I want to thank you for being with us, investigative reporter for The Guardian, fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. We will link to your piece, “Trump rule to ban VA abortions for veterans even in cases of rape and incest.” And I encourage people to see Part 1 of our discussion on another issue. We’ll link to it. It’s headlined “Alarm after FBI arrests US army veteran for 'conspiracy' over protests against Ice.” Go to democracy now.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.