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Why won’t other U.S. senators of both parties recognize that killing unborn children is not — and never has been — an essential element of military readiness and national security?
In a contentious debate that has drawn national attention, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is challenging the Department of Defense (DoD) over a new policy that provides travel allowances and paid time off for service members and their dependents who want to travel out of state to get abortions.
Actually, that policy description, while technically true, is far too sanitary.
To be clear, the DoD proposed a policy in the aftermath of the overturn of Roe v. Wade that amounts to nothing less than taxpayer-funded abortion tourism. In protest of this policy, Sen. Tuberville has placed a hold on all DoD general and flag officer nominations before the U.S. Senate.
The policy in question was enacted by the Pentagon in response to the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent implementation of laws providing greater protection to the unborn in several states.
Pentagon leadership argues that because servicemembers cannot choose which states they are stationed in, the DoD will now assist their access to the deadly progressive sacrament of abortion by providing up to three weeks of leave and a travel allowance for servicemembers and dependents who have to go out of state to kill their unwanted and unborn child. This policy was announced on February 16, 2023.
Such a proposal would never be able to pass through Congress, which is why the DoD implemented it as an agency-specific policy. While the Hyde Amendment prohibits the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, this policy does an end run around the rules.
In his Washington Times op-ed, “Republicans betraying Tommy Tuberville’s lonely stand expose DC’s lazy corruption,” Chris Bedford explains that “Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced his department would pay for travel and hotels, etc., for any service members seeking an abortion. By paying for everything but the procedure itself, Austin hoped to skirt a law banning taxpayer dollars from being spent on abortion.”
Thus, while the DoD will not be paying directly for the abortion itself, they are using taxpayer dollars to cover the travel expenses. Again, this is taxpayer-funded abortion tourism. And despite the too-cute-by-half workaround to avoid the Hyde Amendment, it’s still illegal for the DoD to change military leave policy without congressional approval.
Sen. Tuberville voiced strong objections to this policy even while it was in its draft form, arguing that it amounts to taxpayer-funded abortion and a violation of the Constitution. In a December 9, 2022, press release, Sen. Tuberville cited a letter he sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in which he wrote:
“On Wednesday, 7 December, my staff received a brief from the (acting) Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and learned that you plan to implement these changes by year’s end. The brief also revealed estimates of how your plan will expand the number of abortions subsidized by the DoD. The estimates are as exponential as they are immoral.
This vast expansion of DoD-subsidized abortions is made worse by how your plan will provide unrestricted access to abortion…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.”
It’s a rare thing in politics these days to find men who are true to their word and who will fight for those who can’t fight for themselves, like the unborn. But Sen. Tuberville has done both of those things.
In response to the DoD’s policy, Sen. Tuberville has been holding up hundreds of senior military nominations that must be confirmed by the Senate. This move has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle, and he has been falsely accused of jeopardizing America’s national security by this stand. Despite the backlash, Sen. Tuberville has vowed to continue his hold on military promotions until the Pentagon changes its policy or it is passed through legislation.
It’s important to point out that Sen. Tuberville is not stopping the Senate from considering these promotions one at a time or even passing them altogether. Rather, he is stopping the Senate from using a “unanimous consent” procedure that would allow legislators to pass them in one massive block all at once.
In other words, he is using a procedural tool that is at his disposal as a senator to protest this policy. But Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Majority Leader of the Senate, refuses to try to move the nominations one at a time out of fear of the “precedent” that would be set.
Of course, it’s no surprise that pro-abortion Democrats would attack Sen. Tuberville for his defense of the unborn. What’s been rather shocking, however, is the bipartisan opposition he has received.
In a recent piece for World Magazine, “Putting the military ahead of the unborn: GOP senators try to undermine Tommy Tuberville’s heroic pro-life fight,” Eric Teetsel, vice president of government relations at The Heritage Foundation, explained why.
“Last week, a group of Republican Senators, including Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), Mitt Romney (Utah), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), and Todd Young (Indiana), took to the Senate floor to try to break Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (Alabama) hold on military promotions. They failed because Sen. Tuberville held firm for hours in his fight against the Biden administration’s unlawful abortion policy. Though Republican senators have for months muttered their disapproval of Tuberville’s strategy of holding high-level military promotions until the DOD reverses its policy, this skirmish was the first time his Republican colleagues have openly rebelled against him.”
As the bipartisan opposition mounts, conservative Christians would do well to ask, as Teetsel puts it, “Why would Senate Republicans fight against one of their own, especially on something as fundamental as the fight to defend the unborn?”
The unfortunate answer? “Despite their espoused principles and campaign promises, life is simply not the top priority of many elected Republicans—at least, not like it is for their voters.”
In the wake of recent pro-life defeats at the state level in the post-Roe world, conservative Christians must be even more vocal, and insistent, that the politicians we elect to defend our values — to defend the unborn — really mean what they say when they tell us they are opposed to abortion.
Sen. Tuberville’s heroic stand is exposing the gap that still exists between the words and the deeds of many “pro-life” politicians. Closing that gap is crucial for the efforts to secure equal protection under the law for all pre-born, God-created image-bearers in America.
As the standoff continues, what’s next? Majority Leader Schumer just announced that he will attempt to change the Senate rules.
The Hill reported that Schumer “announced Monday that the Senate Rules Committee will mark up a resolution Tuesday to confirm more than 350 nonpolitical military promotions at once, circumventing a hold that Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) has had in place for nine months to protest the Pentagon’s abortion policy.”
To pass this resolution, Democrats will need Republican senators to join them to reach the required 60-vote threshold. Thankfully, some other Republican senators, like Rick Scott, R-Fla., are calling on all Republicans to reject this end run.
Either way, Sen. Tuberville has committed to continue the fight, And more and more allies are starting to join him in this courageous effort. In honor of Veteran’s Day, for example, the Heritage Foundation released a statement from veterans serving in their organization. It read:
“We stand united in our support of Sen. Tuberville’s opposition to the Department of Defense’s illegal and immoral policies that attempt to bypass U.S. law and which further erode America’s trust in the capability of the U.S. armed forces to fulfill its mission.”
No doubt the abortion advocates inhabiting the Swamp we call Washington D.C. will keep trying to paint Sen. Tuberville in the worst light possible. But God knows and sees the truth, which is that Sen. Tuberville is simply working to “Rescue those being led away to death” and to “hold back those staggering toward slaughter,” as we are commanded in Proverbs 24:11. He is also heeding the call to accountability that follows in verse 12:
“If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it?”
As Senate Democrats try to find a way to undermine his efforts, Sen. Tuberville continues his resolve to uphold his morals and conscience, saying,
“I’m going to keep my holds in place. If senators want to vote on these nominees one at a time, I’m all for it. But I will keep my holds in place until the Pentagon allows me the opportunity to negotiate this change of law.”
This is indeed a bold and heroic stand for life. Christians across America should pray for Sen. Tuberville as he fights on, and they should be prepared to take similar stands in whatever way we can to defend the unborn in a world that longs to put them to death for the sake of mere personal convenience. Or, as the DoD is wrongly trying to claim, for “military readiness.”
Because the bottom line is that abortions are not necessary for military operations or national security. The purpose of the United States military is to defeat our foreign enemies abroad, not kill our unborn citizens at home. One might think this shouldn’t be controversial, but it clearly is.
As Conn Carroll recently put it, “The military protected our country for over 200 years without paying for abortion travel, and it didn’t suddenly become essential this February.”
The truth is that abortion is never “essential” — not for civilians and not for the military. It never has been and it never will be. Sen. Tuberville clearly knows this. The question we are left with is: Why doesn’t every other senator, and the DoD, know it, too?
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