Ranking Member Takano: "They fought for OUR freedom, and they deserve that same freedom"

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Today, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-Calif.) delivered opening remarks at the Full Committee Business Meeting to Authorize the Women Veterans Task Force. 
 

Ranking Member Takano’s Remarks as prepared:

Today, I am incredibly pleased that we are once again recognizing the important role women veterans have played in service to our country by taking up a resolution to authorize the Women Veterans Task Force for the 118th Congress. 

I applaud Chairman Bost for continuing this effort – originally started under a Democratic-led Congress and championed throughout the 116th and 117th Congresses. 

During these Democratic-led Congresses, the Task Force served as an important tool in advancing equity in the provision of access to resources, benefits, and healthcare for women veterans. 

As the number of women veterans continues to grow, we must remain steadfast in our efforts to ensure these veterans can fully access the care and benefits they have earned. 

Much of this work was led by then-Chairwoman of the Task Force, Congresswoman Julia Brownley. 

I know her tireless efforts will continue in this Congress as she serves as co-chair and works to gather input from the women veteran community and make recommendations to the Committee on how to best address the needs of women veterans. 

These efforts must continue, especially in light of ongoing efforts to restrict access to reproductive healthcare. 

It is shameful that women veterans are being targeted in this effort. Diminishing women veterans’ access to healthcare and gagging providers and veterans so that they cannot discuss healthcare concerns is unacceptable. 

These restrictions have never been imposed in other federal healthcare settings on anyone but women veterans. 

Criminalizing, infantilizing, and denying women veterans’ equal access to the full spectrum of healthcare at VA – including comprehensive reproductive healthcare – is unpatriotic, and an affront to the millions who have worn the uniform. 
House Democrats are committed to ensuring women veterans have equal access to the full spectrum of care at VA – including reproductive healthcare.

When a woman puts her life and body on the line for our country, we promise that her life and body will be cared for as equally as we care for the lives and bodies of male veterans. They fought for OUR freedom, and they deserve that same freedom: freedom to choose, freedom to privacy, and freedom to access comprehensive healthcare. 

Last summer, Congresswoman Brownley and I spent time on the road, holding listening sessions with women veterans, and we heard repeatedly what they want from their VA: a safe and welcoming environment, free from harassment; quality, full-spectrum healthcare, including reproductive healthcare; and facilities that serve their needs.

Just last week, VA announced changes to its outdated and exclusionary motto. 

Words are powerful tools, and any veteran, family member, caregiver, or survivor visiting a VA healthcare facility or sacred resting place in a cemetery should know that VA is, and will always be, a place for them, that all veterans’ service is valued and recognized, and that this country will always be grateful to them, and those they leave behind. 

Making VA a welcoming and trusting place for all who served isn’t a radical idea. Instead, it’s a clear message to the public – including young girls who may wish to serve our country in the future  –  that all veterans’ service is valued. That’s a pretty strong retention tool that costs very little, but yields tremendous results.

More than two million living women veterans have fought for and defended our country’s core founding principle: freedom. It is why they served, and it is why they continue to serve in greater numbers than ever before. 

There is no doubt women veterans deserve our nation’s gratitude and appreciation. But more importantly, they deserve access to the comprehensive healthcare and benefits they’ve earned, and assurance that in their transition to civilian life there are no discriminatory barriers to achieving access to meaningful economic opportunities.

I look forward to the Task Force’s work on ensuring our nation lives up to the promise we have made to women veterans.

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