Billboards have been erected outside at least three Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics as part of an ad campaign challenging what groups describe as “one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.”
Vet Voice Foundation (VVF) and partner The Brigid Alliance launched billboards on Tuesday near major clinics in Georgia (near the Atlanta VA Medical Center), New Mexico (near the Las Cruces VA Clinic), and Virginia (in Hampton Roads/Norfolk near the Hampton VA Medical Center).
The billboards include messages like “We’ve got your six” and are even providing viewers with logistical information, including travel, lodging and other assistance, should they be seeking an abortion or other reproductive health care.
Military.com reported in January how the VA ended abortion services and the majority of its abortion counseling for veterans, with agency officials saying they were just complying with a Department of Justice (DOJ) opinion issued in 2025 that immediately reversed a Biden-era policy from 2022 that expanded abortion access within the VA.
“The main idea is to let veterans know that there are organizations out there who will help them get the health care they need, even though the VA has abandoned its obligation to take care of them in this regard,” Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, told Military.com.
The VA’s abdication of providing abortion and reproductive access “goes against the standard of care and makes it harder for veterans to access these services than it does for people who are imprisoned in federal prison,” Goldbeck added, saying that veterans have been “abandoned” in this particular type of health care.
That widespread DOJ opinion has national ramifications, affecting all VA facilities while also limiting abortion services in cases involving life-threatening medical emergencies. It’s also affected veterans who rely on VA care in their home states regardless of state-specific abortion laws.
The VA in January told Military.com that it was simply complying with the DOJ opinion, adding that prior to the Biden administration widespread abortion access was not the norm. A VA spokesperson specifically cited the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 and how its medical benefits package excluded abortions and abortion counseling in most circumstances between 1999 and the early 2020s.
The DOJ opinion did not alter the issuance of care to a pregnant patient in the midst of a medical emergency.
“The VA’s new policy strips veterans of access to essential reproductive health care and leaves many with no option but to travel long distances or go without care altogether,” Serra Sippel, executive director of The Brigid Alliance, said in a statement shared with Military.com. “At The Brigid Alliance, 8% of our clients last year were U.S. veterans, military members or their families.
“Our courageous veterans should not have to be left navigating confusing and often dangerous barriers like shifting laws, inconsistent information, and growing legal risk just to get the health care they need. This campaign is about making sure they know they’re not alone in doing so. If this administration won’t show up for them, we will.”
Advocacy Based on Experience
The Vet Voice Foundation is not a service provider but an advocacy organization, representing more than 2 million veterans nationwide.
Goldbeck said her organization has heard from partners, indicating an uptick in requests both from veterans who are looking for assistance and also from service members who now are stationed in states where they can no longer receive abortion services or counseling from places like Planned Parenthood.
“Our hope with these billboards is that somebody who maybe isn't aware of the policy change and walks into a VA clinic seeking care and comes out feeling distraught and abandoned, that they will be able to see this and know that there's a number they can call, someone they can reach out to help them get what they need,” Goldbeck said.
It’s not a new issue, either. Goldbeck commissioned in the Marine Corps in 2012 and got out in 2019 after working as a combat engineer officer in addition to a uniformed victim advocate.
Even then, she described abortion access as “always being spotty” with access varying depending on where people were stationed. There were also on-base restrictions.
“So, a lot of times when people needed to access these services, they had to go off base,” she said. “And in the past, before the fall of Roe v. Wade…there were lots of people who didn't have access to clinics outside of base, but they were more prevalent than they are now."
And now, since the Dobbs decision, we've just seen a real elimination of so many places that people could get health care services, even when it wasn't provided off base. With those places being gone, now it requires a lot of money and time potentially to travel to get even just counseling.
In March, Democrats became close to overturning the new Trump administration policy, losing in a 50-48 vote as part of legislation led by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
“Today’s vote was about protecting one of the most basic freedom for people who risked their lives to protect all our freedoms…but today Republicans sent a clear message that the don’t care if your health is in danger, if you’re a veteran or if you’ve been raped—they want abortion banned everywhere,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA.), the first woman to serve on the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee, said in a statement after that vote.
