VA Informs Staff: Pregnancy Extends to All Gender Identities

Leaked video footage reveals that a United States government agency is promoting abortion and pushing the false claim that men can get pregnant, prompting outrage from pro-life women’s advocacy groups.

The popular X account Libs of TikTok released footage from videos providing “Reproductive Healthcare Training” to staffers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Wednesday. One April presentation, which focused on the “mental health aspects of abortion,” began with a disclaimer claiming that “not all people who seek abortions identify as women” and advising VA employees to use the phrase “person who is pregnant” as an “inclusive” alternative to “pregnant woman.”

Leaked Dept of Veterans Affairs training video instructs staff to confirm that men can get pregnant, advises not to congratulate a pregnant woman, and encourages and glorifies abortions. pic.twitter.com/0gwpJ8jS8I

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 20, 2023

Another portion of the video footage shared by Libs of TikTok shows a list of terms from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Guide to Language and Abortion. Terms VA staffers were advised to refrain from using include “surgical abortion,” “chemical abortion,” “baby or unborn child,” “fetal heartbeat,” “elective abortion or abortion-on-demand” and “mother.”

Instead, VA staffers were encouraged to use the term “embryo” or “fetus” to describe a pre-born baby in addition to saying “veteran or person” rather than “mother.” Another slide presented to VA employees claimed that women who didn’t obtain abortions felt “more regret, anger, [and] anxiety,” “less relief,” “higher stress” and “lower self-esteem” compared to women who had abortions. It also associated restrictions on abortion with “maternal bonding difficulty.”

The presentations not only promote abortion, but they also cite a study that claims that women have a negative response to viewing an ultrasound before having an abortion and warned that “abortion restrictions can substantially curtail future life prospects.”

Pro-life and religious advocacy groups forcefully condemned the VA training. In a statement shared with The Christian Post, CatholicVote President Brian Burch described the training video as the latest evidence that “the Biden Administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs has shamelessly weaponized the U.S. military to advance a radical pro-abortion agenda that has no place infecting our defense agencies.”

“The video is an insult to women everywhere, not only because it utterly denies biology in claiming men can get pregnant, but also because it adds insult to injury in claiming pregnancy is nothing to be celebrated or congratulated,” he added. “Such outrageous and offensive pro-abortion propaganda coming from a government agency tasked with protecting human lives is a deeply disturbing sign of the times imposed by this radical Administration.”

Dr. Christina Francis, president of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told CP in a statement: “Women serving our country through military service deserve excellent and evidence-based healthcare, including during a pregnancy. The VA’s training videos have an obvious pro-abortion bias that’s rooted not in scientific evidence but in ideological precommitments.”

Francis called on the federal government to “stop demonizing pregnancy” and condemned the VA for working to “paint pregnancy as inherently dangerous to women without qualifications.” She countered that “pregnancy has many health benefits for women, and its risks and complications can be successfully managed by a well-functioning healthcare system.”

She also expressed disappointment that “rather than committing to managing potential pregnancy complications with the best available evidence-based practices, they are promoting induced abortion as the solution to difficult or unplanned pregnancies. Active service members, veterans and their children deserve more from the taxpayer-funded agency that’s tasked with serving and caring for them.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser offered a similar analysis in a separate statement obtained by CP. Lamenting that the VA was “promoting and training their staff with radical, pro-abortion ideology” as well as “counseling women veterans into having abortions,” she asked, “At a time when our veterans need our greatest support, why is the VA prioritizing false ideology over the needs of our ill, injured and wounded veterans?”

The leaked video footage from the VA’s training presentations promoting abortion comes as the agency faces criticism for establishing a rule allowing abortions to take place at VA facilities even if abortions are banned in the states where the facility is located. As Dannenfelser noted, this has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has worked to block all military-related confirmations and promotions until the Biden administration and the VA abandon their efforts to push abortions. “Senator [Tommy] Tuberville and Rep. Michael Cloud should be applauded for exposing that the VA has opened the door to abortion on demand,” Dannenfelser asserted. “And for leading congressional efforts to stop this illegal agenda.”

In addition to raising concerns that performing abortions at VA hospitals run afoul of state laws, pro-life activists and members of Congress have contended that such actions violate federal law as well. Last year, as the VA was debating the enactment of a policy allowing their facilities to perform abortions, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough insisting that permitting abortions at VA hospitals would violate the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992.

The 1992 law authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide women with “general reproductive healthcare, including the management of menopause, but not including under this section infertility services, abortions, or pregnancy care.”

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com