In a state that has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, Georgia veterans were left with few options until the billboards showed up.
Vet Voice Foundation, a veterans advocacy group, and The Brigid Alliance, an abortion support organization, are fighting to get information about abortion care to veterans and their families who have lost access to these services under the Department of Veteran Affairs’ policy change.
According to the VA, there are more than 155,000 veterans capable of pregnancy, enrolled in VA health care, and who live in states that have enacted abortion bans or restrictions.
The two groups have posted billboard ads outside of major VA clinics across the country, including near the Atlanta VA Medical Center, that provide information for those seeking abortion care on how to access travel, lodging, child care, and other logistical assistance.
The message “we’ve got your six,” a term used in the military that means to have someone’s back, is the lead message on the ads.
Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, describes the VA’s policy decision as a “near total ban” on abortion at VA clinics all over the country.
“After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, the VA expanded access to abortion care for veterans, allowing abortions in limited cases around rape, incest, or serious risk to the patient’s health or life,” Goldbeck said. “But at the end of 2025 under the new Trump administration, the VA reversed that policy and stopped providing abortion care almost entirely in all cases.
“They banned abortion counseling. Providers cannot advise patients about their options, and that applies to all VA facilities nationwide, even in states where abortion is legal,” Goldbeck said.
Advocates warn that these bans and restrictions have real-life impact. Reports came out last month that a Georgia veteran, Alexia Moore, was charged with murder after allegedly taking abortion medication to terminate her pregnancy.
Goldbeck said that Moore’s case is “horrific,” and that many of the veterans impacted by the VA’s decision to end abortion services are Black.
“There are more than 2.1 million women veterans in our country … about 29% of women enrolled in the VA Healthcare System are Black women,” Goldbeck said. “So there’s a significant chunk of the population of the VA using VA health care who are Black women who may be seeking reproductive health care.”
The move to end abortion services and counseling at the VA comes only a few years after the services were first implemented at the organization underneath former President Joe Biden in September 2022.
The policy made it so abortions were allowed at the VA when the life or health of the pregnant person would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. It also allowed abortion counseling services to help advise patients on their options for care.
The VA first proposed to revoke the services in August 2025. They were officially prohibited after the Department of Justice issued a memo on Dec. 18.
Last month in the U.S. Senate, Democratic lawmakers worked to reverse the ban on abortion services at the VA, but the effort was defeated in a 50-48 vote.
“From my perspective, veterans who have served this country, raised their right hands and swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the freedoms that it strives to enshrine, deserve access to the best health care,” Goldbeck said.
“The fact that we have removed even abortion counseling for veterans, giving them the most restrictive care in the country in terms of all federal programs, even more restrictive than the care that prisoners in federal prisons receive, is really a slap in the face to all those who have served and everyone who cares about the health and well being of veterans,” Goldbeck said.
Goldbeck said that since the campaign began, The Brigid Alliance has seen an uptick in request for their services.
“If we reach even one veteran who needs help, that’s a win to me,” Goldbeck said.
