Vietnam Veteran and Daughter Sue VA over Denial of Benefits for Agent Orange Birth Defects
Ron Christoforo served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange. His daughter Michele was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism linked to that exposure. Under federal law, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides benefits to children born with dwarfism to mothers who served in Vietnam. Because it was Michele’s father who served, she is ineligible for benefits.
At a press conference at Yale Law School on April 27 joined by Sen. Richard Blumenthal ’73, the Christoforos announced the filing of a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut challenging that distinction as unconstitutional sex discrimination. The Christoforos are represented by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic.
The law, enacted in 2000, when scientific understanding of toxic inheritance was limited, provides VA education, health care, and disability compensation to children born with certain birth defects only if their mother served in Vietnam. An estimated 350,000 children with birth defects born to male Vietnam veterans have been excluded as a result. Modern research suggests that paternal exposure to Agent Orange can cause genetic damage and birth defects in children. According to the filing, the VA denied Christoforo’s application for a single reason: her veteran parent is her father.
“When the VA rejected my claim, they didn’t say my condition wasn’t real or that it wasn’t caused by Agent Orange. They said my father’s service didn’t count the same as a mother’s would. How can that be legal?” said Michele Christoforo.
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The federal suit argues that in giving benefits to children of women and not men who served in Vietnam, the law is unconstitutional and unsupported by modern science.
“I voluntarily enlisted in the Army and I’m proud that I did. At the time, I didn’t know what Agent Orange would do to my family. None of us did. But now we do; fathers pass genetic mutations like dwarfism to their children. Decades later, my daughter is being denied help that other veterans’ children receive just because I’m her father. She deserves the same benefits any other veteran's child would get,” said Ron Christoforo.
“Children of all veterans exposed to toxins deserve equal benefits without exception. Michele’s condition is real, her father’s service is unquestionable, and the damage caused by Agent Orange is well-documented. Denying her VA benefits solely because her father served rather than her mother is both unjust and cruel,” said Blumenthal, who earlier this year introduced the Molly Loomis Bill to expand congressional research on birth defects among descendants of toxic-exposed veterans. “The children of toxic-exposed veterans deserve our support, and that’s why I’ve introduced legislation to help them, including further research on the generational effects of all toxic exposures,” Blumenthal said.
“Our members came home from Vietnam carrying wounds that didn't always show up right away, and some of those wounds were passed on to their children. The law recognized that for the children of women veterans. Scientific research does not justify this distinction. It is long past time it does the same for the children of the men who served alongside them,” said Dr. Linda Schwartz of the Vietnam Veterans of America.
The lawsuit argues the statute violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment and asks the court to declare the sex-based distinction unconstitutional, requiring the VA to extend benefits equally to all qualifying children of Vietnam veterans regardless of whether their veteran parent is their mother or their father.
“Without valid justification, the law withholds benefits from male veterans’ children that the children of female veterans receive,” says Kegan Strawn ’28, Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic student intern. “That is unconstitutional sex discrimination.”
The Veterans Legal Services Clinic is part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School.
