A training video allegedly leaked from the Department of Veterans Affairs promotes abortion and even suggests that men can become pregnant, Fox News reported Wednesday.
The “Reproductive Health Training” video from April 2023 tells staffers how to talk to veterans who are considering aborting their babies.
“Before discussing counseling procedures, the video began with a ‘note’ on language that clarified, ‘Not all people who seek abortions identify as women.’ Another note read, ‘Person who is pregnant’ is inclusive and preferred to ‘pregnant woman,’” according to the report.
Another slide tells staffers to use certain language about abortion, like “embryo or fetus” instead of “baby or unborn child,” “veteran or person” instead of “mother,” and “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity” instead of “fetal heartbeat.”
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
Several videos, first obtained by the Post Millennial, show the department pitching abortion as “essential, life-saving care” that is safer than pregnancy. The video also cites dubious studies claiming women rarely feel regret for having an abortion:
The caregiver is presented with statements that, when examined, originate from the same echochamber of pro-abortion ideology, masked as academic and medically accredited sources. Care providers are instructed to stress the fact that abortion absolutely does not pose a hazard to a patient’s mental health and that the most common emotion after having an abortion is relief.
The leak comes more than a year after the department announced it would begin providing abortions for veterans and their dependents through its taxpayer-funded health care system, according to Fox News.
“This would include states where abortions are restricted or outlawed,” the report states.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser slammed the VA for training its staff “with radical pro-abortion ideology”:
Americans will be shocked to learn that, not only is the VA performing abortions at hospitals across the county, but they are promoting and training their staff with radical pro-abortion ideology, counseling women veterans into having abortions. Most Americans don’t want their taxpayer dollars funding abortions, especially in direct violation of the law.
Senator [Tommy] Tuberville and Rep. Michael Cloud should be applauded for exposing that the VA has opened the door to abortion on demand and for leading Congressional efforts to stop this illegal agenda. Right now, the VA is instructing its staff to completely sidestep state pro-life laws and provide abortions. We must continue to expose and stop this illegal extremism. At a time when our veterans need our greatest support, why is the VA prioritizing forced ideology over the needs of our ill, injured and wounded veterans?
Tuberville, in addition to rallying with Cloud against the VA’s abortion policy, has blocked hundreds of military appointments in response to the Pentagon’s policy providing abortions to service members.
RELATED EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Tommy Tuberville Scores a Win Against Pentagon-Funded Abortion
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
CatholicVote President Brian Burch also slammed the VA in a statement via email for propping up a “radical pro-abortion agenda.”
“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. CatholicVote has spent the past several months demanding that the VA stop holding military appointments hostage with its illegal, unconstitutional policy to fund abortion and abortion-related expenses for service members and their families while expressing concern over the agency’s increasingly overt political bias,” Burch said.
“[O]ur worst fears were confirmed by the VA’s outrageous training video that unapologetically encourages and glorifies abortion, implies pregnancy is a dangerous medical condition, and suggests that abortion is always safer than childbirth,” he continued. “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.”
“Such outrageous and offensive pro-abortion propaganda coming from a government agency tasked with protecting American lives is a deeply disturbing sign of the times imposed by this radical administration,” Burch concluded.
