Tucson congressional candidate Mendoza knocks proposed VA abortion ban

A Marine veteran who is seeking to unseat Southern Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani in next year’s midterm elections blasted a Trump administration proposal to ban abortions in cases of rape and incest at VA hospitals and clinics.

The Department of Veterans Affairs proposal would also ban coverage of abortion care in cases where the pregnant woman’s health was endangered and prohibit abortion counseling.

Abortion care would only be available if the pregnant woman were in danger of dying as a result of the pregnancy.

The proposed rule would also prohibit military health insurance coverage from covering abortion care unless the life of a pregnant woman was at stake.

“This is just a direct attack on bodily autonomy and the ability for people to make their own decisions about their health,” said JoAnna Mendoza, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 6 in the 2026 election. “There’s this sentiment that we don’t deserve the freedoms that we fought for.”

VA Secretary Doug Collins said the Trump administration was reverting back to the Pentagon policy that was in place before the Biden administration expanded abortion access for servicemembers and their families following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a right to abortion. Following the Dobbs ruling, the Biden administration said it was expanding abortion services in cases of rape and incest and to protect the health of the pregnant woman because some states had outlawed nearly all abortions.

Collins said that abortion in cases of rape or incest or to protect the health of a pregnant woman “is not a ‘needed’ VA service.”

“We take this action to ensure the VA provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families,” Collins wrote in a July 24 rule-change proposal submitted to the National Register.

Ciscomani’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed policy, which would also prohibit the active servicemember’s healthcare coverage from covering the cost of an abortion for themselves or a family member in cases or rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at stake.

Collins wrote in his proposed rule that the decision is a return to the status quo that existed before 2022, when the Biden administration extended the coverage to include cases of rape and incest or to protect the health of the pregnant woman.

Mendoza said the issue is really personal to me.” 

“I spent a lot of years as a Marine Corps drill instructor, training transforming young women who wanted to become Marines,” she said. “And believe it or not, there were a lot who had never even been educated on reproductive health care or didn’t have anybody that they could ask questions.”

Mendoza served 17 years in the U.S. Marines, including about five years as a drill instructor, after serving three years in the U.S. Navy.

She said she herself was among the many servicewomen who have experienced sexual assault.

“There are thousands of women who have experienced military sexual assault and I have as well,” she said. “And reproductive health care was a vital part of my recovery after that traumatic experience.”

The experience led her to become a sexual assault victim advocate in the military.

“After that experience, I was on a mission that I did not want this to happen to anyone, men or women, and especially not those serving our country,” she said.

Ciscomani has frequently touted his work on behalf of veterans.

While his is voting record represents his consistent opposition to abortion, Ciscomani said during his 2024 campaign that he supported allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother was in danger – all conditions that would be prohibited under this rule.

Ciscomani voted during his first term in to prevent servicemembers from being reimbursed for travel expenses if they needed to travel in order to obtain an abortion.

Ciscomani has declined previous opportunities to discuss his abortion votes with Tucson Sentinel.

“We have this administration who just really doesn’t care about veterans or military service members,” Mendoza said. “Only thing that they care about are billionaires, and that’s evident because of the actions that they’ve taken, to include Juan Ciscomani, who has betrayed us, who is going around telling everybody that he’s going to protect our health care and he’s going to protect clean energy investments, and then turns around and votes for this big billionaire bill that doesn’t benefit us at all. And I’m sick and tired of that. That’s why I’m running”

Az CD 6: Midterm target

Southern Arizona’s Congressional District 6 race is considered one of the most competitive in the country because it is nearly evenly divided between Republicans, Democrats and voters who are independent of the two major parties.

Ciscomani has won his past two elections by narrow margins of less than 3 percentage points.

Mendoza was endorsed Thursday by U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, who said the Marine vet “knows our communities and knows what it means to serve.”

Kelly’s wife, Gabby Giffords, also endorsed Mendoza via X/Twitter on Thursday.

“JoAnna Mendoza has served our nation and Southern Arizona with grace and grit,” said Giffords, who represented the area after she was first elected in 2006 until she resigned after being shot through the head in a 2011 assassination attempt that left six dead and 13 wounded. “She’s exactly the leader we need to stand up for our state and fight for commonsense gun safety laws we know save lives.”

After she retired from the Marines, Mendoza worked on veteran issues in the congressional office of former U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, a Democrat who represented parts of Southern Arizona for three terms after first winning office in 2016. O’Halleran has endorsed Mendoza.

She left the congressional office to run unsuccessfully for the Arizona House of Representatives in 2020.

Mendoza is among more than half a dozen Democrats who have filed statements of interest in the race with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office as of Aug. 14. The list includes Chris Donat, Andrew Becerra, Johnathan Buma, Dean Dill, Lori Reid, Samantha Severson, Jason Stanhibel, Bah Iman and Fernando Alvarez.

Two other candidates who had filed statements of interest, Tyler Newman and Aiden Swallow, no longer appear on the state list.

Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman announced earlier this week that he was withdrawing his candidacy and endorsing Mendoza.