California AG Bonta Joins 23-State Coalition Amicus Brief Challenging VA Rule That Would Cut Abortion Care for Veterans
California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in support of plaintiffs challenging the Trump Administration's new federal rule that would eliminate veterans' and their families' access to abortion care, his office announced in Oakland on November 9. The case is Minority Veterans of America v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
In the brief, the coalition argues that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rule would deny abortion care to 90% of previously eligible patients, jeopardizes the health and wellbeing of veterans and their families, creates dangerous confusion for healthcare providers, and shifts burdensome healthcare costs onto states.
'The Trump Administration is once again breaking a fundamental promise to our veterans by restricting access to healthcare and knowingly exposing those who have sacrificed so much for our country to preventable harms,' Attorney General Bonta said. He urged the court to hold the rule unlawful.
In December 2025, the VA finalized the rule reversing protections established in 2022 that permitted abortion care for veterans and their survivors and dependents in cases of self-reported rape or incest, or when a pregnancy threatened a patient's health, as well as abortion counseling in all cases. In the first year of the 2022 rule, 73% of patients who received abortion care through the VA experienced pregnancies that threatened their health, 17% were survivors of rape, and 10% faced life-threatening pregnancies, the office said.
California recently enacted AB 2531 (Irwin, 2026), which allows Medi-Cal providers to apply for grants to offer abortion and contraceptive care, at no cost, to uninsured veterans or veterans who do not have health coverage that includes abortion and contraception.
The coalition further argues that restricting medically necessary care is particularly dangerous for veterans facing heightened pregnancy risks; that the rule's lack of an explicit life-saving exception for veterans themselves may cause providers to delay emergency treatment; that it is more restrictive than most state abortion bans and departs from federal emergency care standards including EMTALA; that eliminating abortion counseling undermines informed consent; and that it shifts costs onto states' Medicaid programs and reproductive healthcare safety nets.
In filing the brief, Bonta joins the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
(Source: Office of the California Attorney General)
Source: Office of the California Attorney General
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州总检察长 Rob Bonta 2023年与学生交流（资料图）。加州总检察长办公室摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: California Attorney General Rob Bonta with students in 2023 (file photo). Photo by the Attorney General of California, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
