New VA Rules Allow Denials of Treatment Based on Political Party Affiliation, Marital Status

It sounds like a headline from The Onion, but it appears to be real. As reported by the Latin Times and others (cited below), "The VA, which serves over 9 million veterans across more than 170 hospitals and 1,000 clinics, revised its internal bylaws to strip longstanding protections against discrimination based on political party, marital status, sexual orientation and national origin."

I'm looking for copies of the old policy and the new one, which reportedly eliminated certain protections against discrimination in treatment. Meanwhile, you can get the gist of the changes in these early reports:

• VA Doctors Can Refuse to Treat Dems After Trump Order, Daily Beast, June 16, 11:14 AM EDT
• New VA policy sparks outrage as doctors may refuse treatment to Democrats and unmarried veterans alike, Economic Times (India, English version), June 15, 2025 10:41 PM (-5 GMT)
• ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans, The Guardian, Jun 16 2025 06.00 EDT
• Trump's 'disturbing' order lets veteran doctors deny care to Democrats or unmarried veterans, Irish Star, 11:53 ET, 16 Jun 2025
• Unhinged Trump Order Lets VA Doctors Refuse to Treat Democratic Vets; Doctors can also refuse treatment to unmarried veterans, The New Republic, June 16, 2025/12:40 p.m. ET

From The New Republic:

The new rule changes apply to professionals across disciplines, including doctors, certified nurse practitioners, psychologists, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, and speech therapists.

Dr. Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, told The Guardian that the VA’s new rules were “extremely disturbing and unethical.”

“It seems on its face an effort to exert political control over the VA medical staff,” Caplan said. “What we typically tell people in healthcare is: ‘You keep your politics at home and take care of your patients.’

“Those views aren’t relevant to caring for patients. So why would we put anyone at risk of losing care that way?” Caplan added.

The VA's explanation is no explanation at all: 

VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz told The Guardian that the changes were just a “formality” made in order to comply with Trump’s executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”