WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs, which blocked abortions from its medical benefits package prior to changes made by President Joe Biden’s administration, is proposing to reinstate that exclusion, The Daily Wire has learned.

Before Biden’s administration removed an exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the Veterans Affairs medical benefits package, that exclusion had been in place since the package was first established in 1999 through the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992, a proposed rule from the Department of Veterans Affairs states.

Under the exclusion, abortions, which end the life of unborn babies, were expressly excluded from the package.

Veterans Affairs is also proposing that it reinstate exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling for the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), the proposed rule shows — exclusions also removed in 2022.

“We take this action to ensure that VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families,” reads the proposed rule.

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A Veterans Affairs spokesperson shared in a statement that “prior to the Biden Administration’s politically motivated change in 2022, federal law and longstanding precedent across Democrat and Republican administrations prevented VA from providing abortions and abortion counseling.”

 “VA’s proposed rule will reinstate the pre-Biden bipartisan policy, bringing the department back in line with historical norms,” the spokesperson noted.

The VA notes that the new policy will not prevent the department from caring for women in life-threatening circumstances — a fear commonly promoted by critical media when discussing abortion policy.

Under the Biden administration, the former president directed the VA to amend its “medical regulations to remove the exclusion on abortion counseling and establish exceptions to the exclusion on abortions in the medical benefits package for veterans who receive care set forth in that package, and to remove the exclusion on abortion counseling and expand the exceptions to the exclusion on abortions for Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) beneficiaries.”

The administration’s VA Department said at the time, shortly after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, that the move was necessary to help protect “the lives and health of veterans.”

“As abortion bans come into force across the country, veterans in many States are no longer assured access to abortion services in their communities, even when those services are needed,” the Biden era rule said. “VA has determined that an abortion is ‘needed’ pursuant to 38 U.S.C. 1710, when sought by a veteran, if determined needed by a health care professional, when the life or health of the pregnant veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term or when the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest. Unless VA removes its existing prohibitions on abortion-related care and makes clear that needed abortion-related care is authorized, these veterans will face serious threats to their life and health.”

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he ordered his team to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after Friday’s jobs report showed that the U.S. job market underperformed expectations last month and made major negative revisions to previous reports.

Trump accused McEntarfer, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, of faking jobs numbers “before the Election to try and boost” the chances of former Vice President Kamala Harris. The July jobs report showed that growth was slower than expected at 73,000 jobs added, while unemployment slightly ticked up to 4.2%, in line with predictions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also made major revisions to the May and June reports, marking down nonfarm payrolls by nearly 260,000 in the two months combined.

“This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” he added. “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

NBC News reported that a Trump official confirmed the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner had been fired. McEntarfer has spent the last 20 years of her career working in the federal government, hopping from the Census Bureau to the Treasury Department to the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ deputy director is Bill Wiatrowski, who started under former President Barack Obama.

In a follow-up post later on Friday, Trump wrote, “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad — Just like when they had three great days around the 2024 Presidential Election, and then, those numbers were ‘taken away’ on November 15, 2024, right after the Election, when the Jobs Numbers were massively revised DOWNWARD, making a correction of over 818,000 Jobs — A TOTAL SCAM.”

The 818,000 jobs revision from the Bureau of Labor Statistics came in August of last year, three months before the 2024 election, not after the election as the president claimed. That downward revision was for total U.S. job gains over a 12-month period ending in March 2024.

The president tore into McEntarfer for the revision of recent jobs reports, saying, “Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative.” He then called for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to “also be put ‘out to pasture,'” along with McEntarfer.

“The Economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out? Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should also be put ‘out to pasture.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter!”