Women Veterans

National Council of Administration Weekly Update

March 24, 2023

Membership

Thanks to a $5,000 grant from Comcast/NBCUniversal, we’re able to offer an additional year of annual membership to female veterans joining as members-at-large through the vfw.org/Join online application. When an application is filled out for a new member and they select an annual membership ($45) and indicate female, they will get a pop-up asking them if they would like to receive a second year of membership at no charge, sponsored by Comcast/NBCUniversal. The $5,000 grant will cover the cost for 111 new members, and the program runs until the grant money is exhausted. In the past, this usually occurred over a three-month period.

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Reproductive Health message

Dan West Mon, Nov 7, 2022 at 6:06 PM

My fellow war veterans,

As we all know veterans have earned VA care at the price of our time in service. Unfortunately, not all care is distributed equally. Our women veterans still see a disparity when accessing their earned health care. We continue to see that disparity although we have moved forward in so many positive ways to include women veteran healthcare access.

After the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs, we are reminded that there is still work to be done. Some of our women comrades are concerned with facing limitations in access to care and certain treatments that they are due to receive – even though the VA and Defense secretaries have tried to clarify that reproductive care standards remain unchanged.

This puts women veterans at a great loss if they cannot utilize the healthcare they have worked hard to obtain. There should not be a hesitation over whether VA is going to provide a service rather than a conversation of which services will be most effective for the veteran. We as an organization owe it to our fellow comrades to ensure they have support when it is needed the most.

If you have a woman veteran who is having trouble receiving care, VFW National Veterans Service has two women veterans on our team that you can direct them to contact. We have also included a Reproductive Health: VA & DOD Fact Sheet that you can share with veterans that provides helpful information also.

Thank you for your attention on this matter affecting our comrades.

National Veteran Services

202-543-2239

Marion H. Fera

Health Consultant

National Veterans Service

Office: (202) 608-8349

Email: mfera@vfw.org

Meggan K. Thomas, MPH

Special Assistant for Veteran Health Policy

Office: (202) 608-8364

Email: mthomas@vfw.org