The senator said the holdup at present is less about abortion and more that the Pentagon chose to institute the policy outside of congressional approval. The rule should go through the normal legislative process, he argued.
“If it passes, or if it doesn’t, that makes no difference,” he said. “Let’s legislate in the House and the Senate.”
The Biden administration cares more about forcing Americans to fund abortions that approving important military nominees.
Senator Tommy Tuberville has placed holds on over 300 military promotions because Joe Biden is forcing Americans to fund abortion tourism for members of the military. But Biden refuses to ditch the illegal policy so those nominations can be quickly approved.
When Joe Biden announced the new policy to make Americans fund abortion tourism, Senator Tommy Tuberville made the decision to block all limitary nominations until the policy was reversed. Instead of reversing the policy, the Biden administration continued forcing Americans to fund abortion.
And a Pentegon official says in a new interview that Biden is not backing down.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh pushed back on Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) continued hold on Department of Defense (DoD) nominations over their insistence of providing transportation to female service members who want to get abortions if the state their duty station is in has strong pro-life laws.
“No, we’re not going to change our policy on ensuring every single service member has equitable access to reproductive healthcare. If you are a service member stationed in a state that has rollbacked or restricted healthcare access, you are often stationed there because you are assigned, it’s not that you chose to go there. A service member in Alabama deserves to have the same access to healthcare as a service member in California, as a service member stationed in Korea,” Singh said.
Never mind that killing babies in abortions is not health care and funding it via the military is prohibited under federal law.
“It’s not an abortion policy. The Department does not have an abortion policy. We have a healthcare policy and we have a travel policy that allows for our service members to take advantage of healthcare that should be accessible to them,” she added.
That claim is false. There was no abortion tourism funding until Biden introduced the new policy.
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While Biden and the media claim Tuberville is to blame for the lack of approved military nominees, Democrats could have approved leaders of the Army and Marines – because all Tuberville is doing is blocking a vote on all of them at the same time. Senate Democrats could bring up the nominations – and approve the two nominees today if they really wanted to do so.
In December of last year, Tuberville wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saying the additional costs for such a policy “are as exponential as they are immoral,” noting, “When questioned on these issues, the department could not provide analysis or estimates of how this policy change will impact its budget, readiness, and manpower. It is irresponsible to push forward with such a controversial change to department policy without thorough due diligence on how this will impact the readiness of the force.”
“I’m not changing my mind.”
That’s the promise pro-life Senator Tommy Tuberville is making pro-life Americans. The Republican senator says he will not back on holding up military nominees until the Biden administration stops forcing Americans to fund abortion tourism.
“I hate to have to do this,” Tuberville said in an interview today. “But they’re going to listen.”
“They think I’m going to change my mind. I’m not changing my mind,” he said in an interview with CNA on Wednesday. “They’re going to be stuck with a lot of admirals and generals without promotions.”
Tuberville has come under fire from Democrats who are unhappy with his blocking military nominees until Biden reverses the illegal policy. But, no amount of lobbying, public pressure or media criticism will change his mind, he says.
Tuberville — a former head coach of Auburn University’s football team who continues to go by the sobriquet “Coach” — has referred to the Pentagon’s rule as a “radical plan to facilitate thousands of abortions a year with taxpayer dollars.”
“We heard the military was going to change their abortion policy,” Tuberville told CNA. “We started asking for a briefing. It took three months to get that briefing.”
“I sent a letter to [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin and said, ‘If you do this I’m going to put a hold on all your admirals and generals,’” Tuberville said. “We never heard from him. A few months later they started the new policy. And now six months later here we are.”
“I don’t think they understood I would make this hold permanent,” Tuberville added.
Democrats claim that Tuberville’s actions are hurting the military, but the senator contends that’s not the case.
Tuberville told CNA that if the holdup in promotions was having a negative effect on U.S. military capability, he would be taking a different approach. “If I thought this would affect readiness, I wouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “Readiness is not a problem.”
He cited as an example Gen. Eric Smith, who, though he hasn’t been officially promoted, is currently performing the duties of the Marine Corps commandant in an acting role.
Thousands of veterans recently supported Tuberville in a letter to members of Congress. Here’s more:
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) signed by thousands of “current and former service members of the United States Military, and organizations which support and advocate for the safety and well-being of our service members” veterans declare that they “firmly support Senator Tuberville’s position of holding civilian, general, and flag officers from confirmation by unanimous consent until the DoD rescinds its recently instituted policy of subsidizing abortion.”
The veterans state in their letter that they “stand united in condemning this policy” implemented by the Biden administration, saying it is “not just illegal, but shamefully politicizes the military, circumvents the authority of Congress, and exceeds the authority of the Department of Defense.”
Addressing some of the incoming Tuberville has faced for his principled stance, the letter shoots down claims that Tuberville’s action has had the effect of “negatively impacting military readiness” by noting the “Department of Defense has failed to present any evidence that substantiates this claim.”
“To the contrary, it appears true that the politicized agenda of Secretary Austin and the Biden administration are significantly diminishing military readiness,” notes the letter. “The American people, include its servicemembers, are disappointed by President Biden and Secretary Austin’s recent decisions to mandate receipt of the COVID-19 vaccines, promote the radical LGBT agenda, and now subsidize abortion.”
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Those policies, the 5,000-plus veterans say, mean that “the military now faces an unprecedented crisis of recruitment – missing its recruitment goal for the first time ever last year.” Instead of catering to Democrat special interests, the veterans say the “focus of our military must be on keeping the American people safe, not advancing the left-wing social agenda.”
In closing, the veterans’ letter reminds that “[t]here is no truth more profound than the fact that all human life is sacred. The mission of the United States Military is to defend and protect all American lives — not subsidize the practice of destroying innocent and vulnerable American children via abortion with taxpayer dollars.”
“By pledging to hold these nominations to the Department of Defense until administration officials reverse course, Senator Tuberville is doing a great service for the American people – including its service members,” the veterans reiterate.
House Republicans successfully added an amendment to a defense spending bill to block the policy. The $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 passed by a bipartisan vote of 219-210, with four Republicans voting no and four Democrats voting yes. Three Republicans and two Democrats didn’t vote.
The national defense bill now goes to the Senate, where Democrats strongly oppose the pro-life provision. Whether the Senate passes the bill, tries to amend out the pro-life provision or approves its own version remains to be seen.
Unpopular and likely illegal, the Biden policy requires taxpayers to fund travel costs and paid time off for military service members and their families to abort their unborn babies in elective abortions. As a result, Republican leaders estimate 4,100 more unborn babies could be killed in abortions every year.
In response, House Republicans succeeded in passing the Jackson-Roy amendment to the NDAA.
The House voted 221-213 and 222-210 in favor of amendments to the NDAA to ban the Pentagon from paying for expenses related to killing unborn babies and from funding gender transition procedures
“My amendment to stop Biden from using the DOD to pay for abortion travel passed This policy is illegal, and soon, it will be gone. This is a great day for our country,” said pro-life Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson after the vote.
Jackson said Thursday that the pro-life amendment “will halt the Biden administration’s illegal and immoral abortion policy” for members of the armed forces and their families.
“Taxpayer funding of travel for an abortion is in fact taxpayer-funded abortion, and this administration has been enacting policies across the government in clear violation of the law,” Jackson said. “The Biden administration has sidestepped existing statute and given the [Defense] Department permission to take this illegal course of action. This has left House Republicans with no choice but to take corrective measures and pass additional legislation.”
Leading pro-life groups also celebrated the vote which comes at a time when pro-life Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking military nominees in an effort to get the polic canceled.
“We praise House GOP leadership for their work in preventing taxpayer funds from illegally being used to pay for or reimburse expenses related to abortion travel,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “The Biden Administration has shown repeatedly that it thinks taxpayers are a never-ending source of funds for its abortion agenda.”
Continued Tobias, “The Jackson Amendment in the NDAA prevents the Biden Administration from circumventing established law.”
Federal law (10 U.S.C. § 1093) has long prevented the Department of Defense (DOD) from using funds to perform elective abortions and prevented the DOD from using its facilities to provide abortions. On October 20, 2022, the Biden Administration’s DOD published a memorandum directing the DOD to pay the travel and transportation costs for military members and dependents who travel to obtain elective abortions.
The federal prohibition against DOD funding of elective abortion clearly extends to funding for any item related to abortion, such as travel and transportation, which has been the case for the entire life of the funding prohibition.
The Jackson Amendment:
- Clarifies and explains federal law (10 U.S.C. § 1093) that prevents DOD funding from being used to perform elective abortions and prohibits DOD facilities from being used to provide abortions.
- Repeals the October 20, 2022 memorandum.
- Amends federal law to clarify that the DOD may not pay for the licensure of healthcare professionals in a state if the purpose is to provide abortions.
“Today the House took a powerful step toward reining in Biden’s illegal policy of taxpayer-funded abortion travel at the Department of Defense,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Representatives Jackson and Roy have courageously led the charge to force the administration to follow the four decades old law against taxpayer funding for abortion at the DOD. Now the House must send the Jackson-Roy amendment in the NDAA to the Senate, and then on to the president’s desk. We also applaud Speaker McCarthy, Leader Scalise, Chairman Rogers and Subcommittee Chairman Banks for their work to curtail this administration’s funding for brutal, painful abortions.”
Polls consistently show strong public opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions. A new Marist poll found 60 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in the U.S. Additionally, 78 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries.
Bans on taxpayer funding for elective abortions used to have strong bipartisan support in Congress. Only recently did Democrat leaders abandon the American people on the issue and begin supporting taxpayer funding for elective abortions – a goal of the abortion industry, which spends huge amounts of money on elections.
