(The Hill) — The Trump administration on Monday denied reporting by The Guardian that said new Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals could refuse care to veterans based on factors like marital status and political affiliation due to an executive order by President Donald Trump.
The Guardian earlier Monday published a report saying VA hospitals are implementing new rules in response to Trump’s executive order in January, which would permit workers to deny care to veterans based on characteristics not protected by federal law.
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which ordered the federal government to recognize only two biological sexes.
According to the documents it obtained, The Guardian reported that “doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity.”
VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz, a former politics editor at Fox News Digital, reportedly did not deny that veteran patients could be denied care and physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation when reached by The Guardian.
But White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly adamantly denied The Guardian’s reporting. Writing on the social media platform X, Kelly addressed the article’s writer, Aaron Glantz, saying, “Aaron, this is a totally FALSE story that The Guardian should retract immediately. Fearmongering with our Veterans to try to score clicks for your failing “news outlet” is pathetic and shameful.”
The VA also responded on X, writing, “This story is disinformation. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.”
The Hill has reached out to The Guardian for comment.
According to those who work with veterans benefits, some hospitals have begun updating their bylaws, but the extent of what effect these changes are having is unclear.
According to Kyleanne Hunter, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the VA has historically been “very expansive” in its anti-discrimination policies, which have gone beyond federally protected classes. In response to Trump’s executive order earlier this year, some bylaws have “shrunk” so that anti-discrimination policies only encompass federally protected classes like race, religion and sex. She notes, however, that there don’t appear to be any rules that mandate discrimination based on unprotected classes.
“There are over 140 different VA medical centers as hospitals that each have their own set of bylaws that exist. So we don’t know how many different hospitals this has actually been changed at,” Hunter told The Hill.
“We’re trying right now to really gather the information we can, to see how widespread the changes of bylaws might actually be, as well as to engage and understand how it is actually impacting our veterans,” added Hunter.
She lamented that VA employees are getting in the crosshairs of this dispute while they seek to provide care to veterans.
“The VA employees that we have talked to and connected with are personally very, very committed to continue to serve all veterans and are concerned that the way in which this is being discussed will continue to destroy morale among VA employees,” Hunter said.
