Democrats, it appears, are unwilling to give an inch on their new Department of Defense policy that facilitates abortions for service members who might be based in states with restrictive abortion laws. It's an end-around on last summer's Supreme Court Dobbs ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade and returned the power to make abortion decisions to the states.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) called out the DOD on the policy and responded by placing a "hold" on DOD nominations for promotions. That means a lot of would-be generals have a much harder time getting approved until things get sorted out.
Tuberville's hold has been going on since early March, but it moved to the front burner last week in a White House press briefing.
"What the senator is doing by holding these nominations, it's a threat to our national security, period," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "That's what he's doing. These are important nominations that we need, that the American people need to keep our country safe. And not only that, they risk our military readiness by depriving our armed forces of leadership and hurt our military families. That's what he's doing by holding these DOD nominees."
If, indeed, the situation was that dire, one would expect a delegation banging loudly on Tuberville's office door – but the senator says he's been approached by neither President Joe Biden nor Senate Democrats.
"They continue to say these things in the public eye, in the media, but they never say anything to me. There's no discussion, there's no dialogue," he said on Washington Watch Tuesday. "I've never heard from the White House. In the last four months I've had a 10-minute discussion with the Department of Defense – that's it.
"You'd think if they're having problems with military readiness, and I was the president of the United States, the leader of this country, I'd call over and say, 'Listen, Coach, could you come visit with me? Let's sit down in my office and get this worked out because we have huge problems. We have huge, huge needs in the military.'"
Crickets from the White House … except in the media
The calls haven't come, Tuberville claims, because the public cries of an emergency are bogus.
"We don't have that. I mean, there's not one job that's unfilled. Everybody's doing their job. Unfortunately, they're building a woke military out of their philosophy that they've got running through the DOD right now. It's hurting us more than anything. We're not going to back down from this. We're sticking with what we need to do here to fight for our country and our rights," Tuberville told show host Tony Perkins.
The new DOD policy allows service members and dependents who are based in states that do not allow abortions to receive up to three weeks of administrative leave and costs associated with travel to states that will perform abortions. Tuberville is seeking a return to the previous policy.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) (right) says there should be a national standard to restrict abortion. He suggests 15 weeks.
"Forty-seven out of 50 European nations limit abortion on demand from 12 to 15 weeks. Is abortion a state's rights issue or a human rights issue? Does it really matter what state you're conceived in? At 15 weeks, babies feel pain, and most places in the world – except China and North Korea – outlaw abortion at that moment in time," Graham told Perkins.
Nominations can still be approved while Tuberville makes his stand, but the hold forces the Senate to consider and vote on nominations individually instead of approving them more swiftly by batches in unanimous consent. The nominations can still be approved, but majority leader Chuck Schumer must weigh their discussion time against precious Senate floor time to consider other business.
"GOP Senator Tuberville is blocking 180-plus military promotions and putting U.S. security in jeopardy because he objects to women in the military accessing reproductive care. He's telling women in the military they're not allowed to make their own health care decisions. This is wrong," Schumer wrote on social media in March.
Tuberville aims to nix ruling by executive order
Tuberville sees the DOD policy as another example of the administration ignoring the legislative branch. "If we continue to let them make up laws in their head at the White House and not go through Congress, we're going to have a tough time in this country," he argued.
The Pentagon is not only snubbing its nose at the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs, but it's also ignoring laws on the books, Tuberville noted.
Congress passed The Hyde Amendment in 1980, which bars federal funding for abortions except in cases involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.
A third-party study cited by the Senate Armed Services Committee projects as many as 4,100 taxpayer-subsidized abortions annually under the new policy. Military abortions averaged fewer than 20 per year under the old policy.
"We've had a policy in the military for decades that has worked – and we've had very few abortions because of rape, incest, and health of the mom. No taxpayer expense. We've had no problems," Tuberville exclaimed.
"But since Roe v. Wade was handed down back to the states almost a year ago, [the Biden administration has] found any way possible to think that, 'Hey, anybody that works for the federal government, we're going to be able to get an abortion for them if they want it.'
"That's not their job. Their job is to govern the laws that we pass in Congress, not to make the laws in the White House," Tuberville said.
