Joe Biden put in place an abortion travel policy last year that forced Americans to fund travel expenses for members of the military in pro-life states to travel to other states for abortions.
Making Americans fund expenses associated with killing unborn babies is bad enough. But, to add insult to injury, the policy requires military leaders to sign off on the abortion travel.
One top National Guard leader has already resigned rather than be forced to sign a death warrant that outlays tax dollars for abortion tourism. And now a pro-life senator says the policy needs to change.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota says that if Joe Biden continues the policy then members of the Defense Department should be the ones forced to approval abortion travel so local military leaders aren’t forced to violate their consciences and participate in authorizing taxpayer-funded abortion travel.
He proposes that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin should personally take on the responsibility of approving service members’ requests to travel for abortion procedures.
On Tuesday, Thune will send a letter to Austin urging him to allow military leaders to defer to him.
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“Their responsibilities already require tremendous testing of the soul and spirit,” Thune wrote. “It is a mistake to tax them further by compelling them to play even a perfunctory role in the Biden administration’s abortion leave and travel policy.”
He added, “Implementation of this ill-advised policy should fall squarely on you, and you alone.”
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), chairwoman of the pro-life caucus, also signed the letter.
“The Biden administration has, regrettably, made it abundantly clear it is willing to flout longstanding federal policy to enable the use of taxpayer funds to support all aspects of an abortion but the procedure itself,” Thune wrote.
The letter notes that under federal law, the DOD accommodates sincere beliefs — moral or religious principles — and seeks clarification on scenarios warranting denial of accommodation.
“We recently witnessed an exodus of experienced professionals from our armed forces who chose to follow their conscience when their pandemic-era religious accommodation requests were summarily rejected,” Thune wrote. “Failure to learn from such errors and honor the deeply held convictions of our servicemembers may spur more untimely separations.”
Earlier this year, the Commander of an Arkansas Air National Guard wing has resigned because of Biden’s abortion policy.
Not only does Biden’s military abortion funding policy put American taxpayers on the hook for having their tax dollars used to fund abortion travel for military members to leave pro-life states and have their babies killed in abortions in pro-abortion states, it puts military commanders in the position of having to approve the abortion travel in the first place.
And that reason is why Colonel Dillon Patterson, who, until last month, was the Commander of the 188th Wing of Ebbing Air National Guard Base, resigned. Patterson submitted his letter of resignation on December 18.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent a letter to Biden informing him of Patterson’s decision and condemning Biden’s abortion funding policy.
“Unfortunately, Col. Patterson was forced to personally choose between either continuing his command or adhering to his sincerely held religious beliefs against abortion. Because he adhered first to his faith instead of overtly political mandates, he voluntarily resigned his command,” Gov. Sanders said.
Sanders bashed the Biden policy that “had disregarded his service and abandoned his most fundamental constitutional rights in favor of more fashionable political and social experiments.”
“Abortion is itself a barbaric practice. But it is apparently not enough for this administration that abortion be available in some states and regulated in others,” Sanders wrote. “Thus, the Defense Department must now apparently sacrifice lifelong personnel’s leadership in the name of military readiness—a laughable paradox if it were not so deeply offensive and damaging.”
The governor also said the policy undermines the pro-life laws of states like Arkansas that protects babies from abortions and does not force its citizens to fund abortions.
Sanders said the policy “subverts the actions of states like Arkansas by using taxpayer dollars to fund the travel, meals, and lodging associated with out-of-state servicemember travel for procurement of an abortion procedure” and complained it goes against “deeply held religious convictions” of commanding officers, like Col. Patterson, as they are forced to approve abortion leave.
She ended the letter calling for the Biden to “Rescind this policy immediately.”
Colnel Patterson will remain an active member of the Arkansas Air National Guard. The resignation will not impact his rank or service record.
“He has led the wing and Ebbing Air National Guard Base with integrity, selfless service, and excellence through a significant transition period as the base readies to host the F-35 Foreign Military Sales mission and Singapore’s squadron of F-16s,” the Arkansas National Guard said in a statement. “In his 20 years of service, Col. Patterson has also commanded the 188th Mission Support Group at Ebbing in Fort Smith, the 214th Operations Support Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron Detachment 1 at Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan. He also served as chief of executive engagements at the Pentagon’s Air National Guard.”
