Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is blocking Department of Defense nominees until they reverse a new military policy that supports abortion tourism. The Biden administration made up a new benefit for military women – any travel-related abortion expenses will be paid by the taxpayers.

This new rule flies in the face of the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment took effect in 1980. It is a legislative provision barring the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, except to save the life of the woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. However, Biden and other pro-abortion lawmakers want to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dodd by allowing women in the military who travel out-of-state to get an abortion to have those expenses paid for by taxpayer money. This is a violation of the Hyde Amendment.

This type of travel is called abortion tourism. Women who want to get an abortion but live in a state that limits abortion have to go to another state. The expenses that occur in this travel – transportation, lodging, food, and the time off from work – will be picked up by federal funds. Everyone knows this is a violation of the Hyde Amendment but President Norms doesn’t care, he is beholden to progressive women who elected him as president. To appease their anger over the Supreme Court’s decision on Dodd, Biden made up a new rule for DoD.

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.

Senator Tuberville placed a hold on moving forward with military nominations in the Senate until there is a vote on the new rule. That is a perfectly reasonable request. If this is what Biden thinks should be done, then let the Senate vote on it. The hold does grind to a halt some of the military’s business – putting nominees in positions that need to be filled, promotions, assistance with transfers, and so on. The Democrats argue that this affects military readiness. Really?

Joe Biden and other Democrats are calling out Tuberville now because he refuses to back down. A Republican actually is standing up and refuses to go along to get along and Democrats, so they are bullying him to remove his hold.

More than 5,000 veterans signed a letter of support for Tuberville. It isn’t Tuberville’s hold that is affecting military readiness, it’s the Department of Defense’s policies that are doing that. Recruitment is down because of the Biden administration’s policies. COVID-19 vaccine mandates, promoting the LGBTQ agenda, and now abortion tourism is what is affecting military readiness. And, the DoD has provided no evidence that readiness has been affected at all.

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 passed the Jackson-Roy amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This amendment to the defense spending bill is to block the new policy. The NDAA passed by a bipartisan vote of 219-210. Four Republicans voted no and four Democrats voted yes. There were three Republicans and two Democrats that didn’t vote. The bill goes to the Senate now where Democrats are strongly opposing the inclusion of the Jackson-Roy amendment.

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 abortion tourism and from funding gender transition procedures.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) spoke after his amendment passed in the House.

“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.

“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.”

All of this drama could end at any time because all that has to happen is for Chuck Schumer to bring a vote on the DoD’s new policy. We’ll see how long Schumer can hold out because it looks like Tuberville is in it for the duration.