Abortion Policy and Law

Congressional Democrats on the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees are introducing Congressional Review Act resolutions to overturn the Trump administration’s new Department of Veterans Affairs rule that bans abortion services for veterans and their dependents, even in cases of rape, incest or serious threats to the mother’s health. The rule, formally submitted to Congress on Jan. 15 after a Dec. 18 Justice Department memo declared Biden‑era VA abortion protections legally unsound, ended limited abortion counseling and care that had been available since 2022. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Patty Murray and Reps. Mark Takano and Julia Brownley are leading the CRA effort, and Senate Democrats plan to use a 30‑signature discharge petition to force a floor vote as early as next week, though the resolutions are almost certain to fail in GOP‑controlled chambers and would need President Trump’s signature. Democrats say the point is to put Republicans on record on denying abortion even in the most extreme cases for women veterans and to spotlight what they call a broader national push to restrict abortion access. The fight adds a new front to the post‑Dobbs policy war by tying veterans’ health benefits directly to the administration’s evolving abortion stance.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman says he has opened an investigation into out‑of‑state organizations advertising "abortion pills by mail" at more than 100 gas stations in Kentucky and neighboring West Virginia, citing a 2022 state law that bans the mailing or delivery of abortion‑inducing drugs into Kentucky. Coleman told Fox News Digital his office has issued subpoenas to fuel stations carrying ads from New York‑based nonprofit Mayday Health, which feature the line "Pregnant? Don’t want to be?" and direct drivers to information on obtaining pills by mail, and he warned groups to "keep your illegal pills out of our Commonwealth." He indicated the probe will assess potential violations of both the shipping ban in House Bill 3 and Kentucky’s consumer‑protection statutes, and urged residents to report similar ads to his consumer‑protection division. Mayday’s executive director Liv Raisner called the move an attack on free speech, noting the group won a temporary restraining order in South Dakota over comparable gas‑station messaging and arguing that people "should know that abortion pills are safe and available." The clash shows how the post‑Dobbs fight over medication abortion is expanding beyond clinics and telehealth into roadside advertising and state enforcement actions that test the limits of interstate speech and drug‑mail bans.