Navy veteran Lindsay Church moved to Virginia with their wife, Jess, for a job with Virginia Commonwealth University. Lindsay, a veteran’s advocate who is transgender, and Jess planned to start a family.
The couple used Intrauterine insemination therapy in Jess’s challenging effort to become pregnant in 2022. Coincidentally, the U.S. Supreme Court was considering Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.
The couple reacted in anger after the Dobbs decision was announced June 24, 2022. Both went to a protest rally in Richmond that day. “We’re literally standing at the protests wondering whether or not she was pregnant,” they said, “turns out she was.”
Church, the founder of Minority Veterans of America, based in Seattle, Washington had testified before Congress in the past. When the Department of Veterans Administration proposed a rule that would allow the department to perform and pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest and the life and health of the mother, they wanted to add their personal story.
Within weeks of the Dobbs decision, supporters of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin began proposing a 15-week abortion ban in Virginia.
The opening months of the abortion debate added to the couple’s anxiety after they learned their pregnancy wasn’t going well, Church said. “We were at a doctor's appointment, just a regular doctor's appointment, and we found out that our baby had a fetal deformity,” they said.
They found out roughly 12 weeks into the pregnancy, but the test to find out the exact cause required amniocentesis, which is not available until 16 weeks.
The baby’s bladder was unable to release the amniotic fluid, and their torso filled up with fluid, Church said. “We spent four or five weeks just in agony not knowing what's going on with our child.”
Doctors told the couple the fetus would not likely survive outside the womb. They decided to have an abortion. The couple began searching for care on their own and ultimately picked a private clinic in Richmond.
“We ended up pursuing compassionate termination,” Church said. “They said that the baby likely died, probably the day that we went in for amniocentesis.”
Church is 100% disabled and has used the Veterans Health Administration for care since leaving the Navy in 2012. As a legal caregiver, Church’s wife was also eligible for healthcare under a VA health insurance program. At the time the couple needed their abortion, the VA had never offered abortion care.
The VA is the largest health care system in the country, serving 26 million veterans and their family members.
On Sept. 15, 2022, just months after watching their partner go through an abortion, Church testified before the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on access to abortion and other reproductive services at the VA.
“The moral injury of having served a country to protect a constitution that no longer protected my family when we needed it most was absolutely devastating,” Church told the committee. “We made the most painful and most compassionate decision for the child we love so much to end the pregnancy.”
It took two years before the final rule became effective in April. Including language that talks about the health of the mother is more inclusive than the Department of Defense. Though it is still highly restrictive, the policy is a landmark for the VA, which has been slow to welcome the growing number of women veterans and transgender veterans, Church said.
Church, now living in Seattle, received a call from the VA after the final rule passed.
“I nearly cried just sitting there thinking about all of it. Not much of a crier,” Church said. “But if there was another generation that didn't have to fight like this, that had access to care, even though this, like state level laws, are telling us that we can't have it. It's hard to say everything happens for a reason. It doesn't. It just didn't happen in vain.”
Reach Steve Walsh at steve.walsh@whro.org.
