00:00I now want to hand the podium over to my longtime colleague or classmate and someone who sits on the Veterans Affairs Committee as the ranking member of the Health Subcommittee. Please welcome Congresswoman Julia Brownlee.
00:15Thank you, Mark. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, Ranking Member Tucano. And I thank all of you for your continued fight for our nation's veterans and their families.
00:30As ranking member of the House Veteran Affairs Subcommittee on Health and a proud member of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, I am here today because, like so many veterans and veteran advocates, I am appalled and disgusted by the Trump administration's cruel and reckless effort to roll back abortion protections for our women veterans.
00:57As women continue to comprise the fastest growing cohort and the most diverse group in our military and veteran community, it is more important than ever to ensure that their rights and access to comprehensive care are protected and that these rights are codified and protected by the law.
01:24Any attempt to gut VA's reproductive health services is not just wrong, it is a direct and dangerous attack on our women veterans.
01:36It's an attack that puts their health, their freedom, and in some cases, their very lives at risk.
01:44Like all women, women veterans deserve access to essential reproductive health care when and where they need it.
01:54To deny them this care is simply unacceptable.
01:58The Trump administration's decision to rescind VA's already limited abortion protections is an enormous step backwards, not only in safeguarding reproductive freedom, but in our broader commitment to our women veterans.
02:17The proposed rule would reinstate VA's near total abortion ban, even in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the veterans' health.
02:29It would strip away for veterans across the country, force them to go without essential health services, and even denying to the 700,000 family members who rely on the VA.
02:44We know the consequences.
02:47Women are denied care.
02:49Doctors are afraid to act.
02:51Patients are left to suffer.
02:54And lives are put in jeopardy.
02:58After the disastrous Dobbs ruling, we've seen women denied life-saving care, left to suffer in hospital parking lots, and told, come back only once they were close to death.
03:10Under this new rule, there is no clear guarantee that women veterans facing miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, or other health-threatening complications will get the care they need.
03:25Make no mistake, Donald Trump and his extremist allies are using women veterans, our women veterans, to advance an anti-choice, anti-woman agenda and inch us closer to a national abortion ban.
03:43This is not only egregious and wrong, it is profoundly dangerous.
03:48The irony is also so incredibly infuriating.
03:52They claim issues of reproductive health should be left to the states.
03:57Yet here they are abusing federal power to impose their personal beliefs on veterans nationwide, even in states where abortion is legal.
04:09This is a direct attack on women veterans' freedom and bodily autonomy.
04:16Veterans should be able to make personal decisions about their health without any interference from politicians.
04:24Their access to care should not shift with every administration.
04:28That is why I introduced the Reproductive Freedom for Veterans Act, a bill that will protect abortion access at VA once and for all.
04:40Ensuring veterans are not subjected to the political whims of whoever happens to occupy the White House.
04:49Veterans fought to defend our freedoms.
04:51They should not have to fight again for their own health care and their own freedom.
04:57That is why Congress must act and act now because the lives of women veterans depend on it.
05:05And to the women veterans here today and speaking out, thank you.
05:10Thank you, not just for your service in uniform, but for your continued service as advocates.
05:19Your voice is more powerful than ever.
05:22And I promise you, I will continue to fight by your side until reproductive freedom for veterans is not just a policy, but it is the law of the land.
