Q: Has President Donald Trump issued a rule that VA doctors can refuse treatment to Democrats?
A: No. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs changed the wording in its bylaws to comply with recent executive orders. In making the changes, words including “national origin, politics, marital status” were removed from language prohibiting discrimination. But existing federal law already prohibits discrimination on those grounds, the VA says.
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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs updated its bylaws in order to comply with recent executive orders, a department spokesperson told us in an email. “These updates will have no impact whatsoever on who VA treats or employs,” he said.
For instance, a copy of the bylaws for the VA’s Palo Alto Health Care Systempublished in April shows changes compared with an archived 2023 version. In the section describing “acceptable behavior” from VA medical staff, the older document said staff should not discriminate “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status, or disability in any employment matter or in providing benefits under any law administered by VA.” The new version of the document shows that several of those characteristics were removed, including “national origin, politics, marital status,” as well as “age” and “disability,” and instead language about “any legally protected status” was added.
The bylaws now say medical staff should not discriminate “on the basis of any legally protected status, including legally protected status such as race, color, religion, sex, or prior protected activity in any employment matter or in providing benefits under any law administered by VA.” MedPage Today reported on the Palo Alto bylaw changes, noting similar differences in a section on medical staff membership.
We received several questions from readers asking about the changes after the Guardian published a story that initially said, “new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans.” The story has since been amended to focus instead on the wording change. “After publication, the VA contacted the Guardian citing a 2013 policy directive that it says will continue to protect patients from discrimination despite the redactions in its bylaws; the VA also cited federal law protecting staff from discrimination,” the publication wrote.
The VA spokesman who told us that the change was made to comply with recent executive orders specifically cited the Jan. 20 order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.” The VA also cited that order in March when it rescinded its directive specifying “respectful delivery of health care” for transgender veterans, a policy that was last updated in 2018, during the first Trump administration.
“Under no circumstances whatsoever would VA ever deny appropriate care to any eligible Veterans or appropriate employment to any qualified potential employees,” the spokesman said in his email. “Under no circumstances whatsoever would VA ever allow any employees to refuse to provide appropriate care to any eligible Veterans or appropriate employment to any qualified potential employees.”
We asked if there were laws or rules beyond the bylaws that would prohibit the VA from denying care to patients based on their national origin, politics or marital status, and the spokesman cited two sections of federal law that govern veterans’ benefits — Title 38 of the U.S. Code, sections 1705 and 1710, which detail the eligibility and enrollment priority for veterans seeking health care through the VA. The priorities are based largely on the patient’s level of service-connected disabilities.
The spokesman also cited a 2013 VA directive titled “Nondiscrimination in Federally-Conducted and Federally-Assisted (External) Programs,” which prohibits discrimination “in federally-conducted and federally-assisted programs and activities based on race, color, religion, national origin, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), age, sex (includes gender identity and transgender status), sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital and parental status, political affiliation, disability, genetic information, harassment, or retaliation.”
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