Ranking Member Takano Statement on Senate Vote to Overturn VA’s Near-Total Abortion Ban

WASHINGTON— Today, Ranking Member Mark Takano released the following statement denouncing Senate Republicans’ votes to block a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which would have overturned the Trump administration’s near-total ban on abortion care and counseling for veterans who receive healthcare from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“Today, my Republican colleagues in the Senate failed our nation’s veterans yet again. As a country, we honor veterans’ service by ensuring they receive the healthcare they earned. Veterans deserve access to the full range of reproductive healthcare that they need at VA. But Republicans put politics before that promise today, by refusing to overturn the Trump administration’s near-total ban on abortion care and counseling at VA,” said Ranking Member Takano. “This decision blatantly ignores veterans’ unique and complex healthcare needs and their higher risk of pregnancy complications and mortality. With their votes, Senate Republicans decided that the government should be in charge of making veterans’ healthcare decisions, even in matters of life and death. My Democratic colleagues and I will continue to advocate for veterans’ reproductive freedoms. Veterans fought for our rights. We remain committed to fighting for theirs.”

The resolution (S. J. Res. 103) is led by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a former chair and senior member of SVAC, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA); Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), and all SVAC Democrats.

Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26), Ranking Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health, leads a companion measure (H. J. Res. 144) in the House. She was joined by Ranking Member Mark Takano, all House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats, and Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández, and Reproductive Freedom Caucus Co-Chairs Diana DeGette and Ayanna Pressley in the effort. So far, 111 additional House Democrats have cosponsored the joint resolution of disapproval.

“Restricting access to medically necessary reproductive health care for women veterans is dangerous, inequitable, and fundamentally inconsistent with the VA’s mission,” said Congresswoman Julia Brownley (CA-26), Ranking Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health. “This rule is a cruel and extreme overreach that would force women veterans to carry pregnancies resulting from rape or incest and withhold care even in life-threatening circumstances, putting them at risk of severe harm or even death, while silencing the very providers entrusted with their care. These restrictions are part of a broader effort to advance a nationwide abortion ban through incremental policies that erode access to care. Today’s vote represents a profound failure to stand with women veterans and protect their health.”

This Senate CRA vote is the latest effort by Democrats to push for veterans’ comprehensive access to reproductive healthcare.

On December 31, 2025—despite thousands of public comments and a letter from more than 230 Congressional Democrats—the Trump administration finalized a rule in the Federal Register, effectively ending abortion access at VA, except in very limited life-threatening circumstances. The rule, first proposed in August of 2025, rescinds a Biden-era VA reproductive healthcare regulation that provided veterans access to abortion care in instances of rape, incest, and threat to life or health, and that allowed VA providers to discuss abortion with patients who were experiencing unwanted or high-risk pregnancies and pregnancy complications. With this rulemaking, VA now has the most restrictive abortion policy of any federal healthcare program.

The Congressional Review Act is a law that enables Congress to overturn agency regulations. If a joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by the president (or if Congress overrides a presidential veto), the rule covered by the legislation cannot go into effect or continue to be in effect.

The joint resolutions of disapproval that have been introduced in the House and Senate to overturn VA’s abortion rule have been endorsed by: Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Minority Veterans of America, the Vet Voice Foundation, Common Defense, Modern Military Association of America, Service Women’s Action Network, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Guttmacher Institute, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Women's Law Center Action Fund, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Power to Decide, Reproductive Freedom for All, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Partnership for Women & Families.

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