Lloyd Austin’s cynical abortion ploy

Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked around 250 senior military promotions over his bigoted, dangerous, radical, far right, MAGA-extremist objections to the DoD’s recently issued abortion policy, hurting thousands of military families up and down the ranks and putting national security at risk (oh my!).  At least that’s what the liberal Left wants you to believe.  In reality, he has merely objected to unanimous consent requests to approve those promotions by voice vote unless Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rescinds his abortion policy memo or Congress passes legislation to terminate the policy.

Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, Sec Austin issued new guidance to DoD to provide leave time and travel pay to members and their dependents to travel to states that allow abortion if they can’t obtain them in the states they are stationed.  Tuberville believes it is illegal to spend federal dollars under that policy and decries the DoD for immersing servicemembers squarely into abortion politics.  He is right.

File Photo: US DoD

The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1977 and still in effect today, prohibits federal funding “to be expended for any abortion or to provide health benefits coverage that includes abortion,” but makes exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.  While not specifically addressed by the Hyde Amendment, federal funds for travel and associated military leave to obtain abortions is a misuse of taxpayer dollars, in Tuberville’s opinion, and must be stopped.  His point is valid because DoD had never found it necessary in the past to issue a policy, let’s say, for servicemembers stationed in Germany where abortion is illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy except for “medical” or “criminal” reasons, with additional restrictions prior to 12 weeks.  Servicemembers would have to travel outside Germany at significant cost and time to obtain an abortion, but prior to Dobbs, DoD was mute.  So why now?  Answer: politics.

The Biden administration believes they have a political winner in the aftermath of Dobbs, by insisting elective abortions should be accessible to servicemembers at taxpayer expense — not paying for the abortion procedure, but buying the plane ticket to it.  When the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act last Friday with only four Democrat votes, the Democrats made clear they are willing to forego funding the U.S. military, increasing servicemembers’ pay, providing aid to Ukraine, ensuring defense of Taiwan, modernizing the military for the future and thousands of other policies in a blatantly political attempt to expand the reach of federal funding into abortion politics. 

Their unsupported claims that the military will lose talent if abortion and transgender policies aren’t institutionalized in the military don’t ring true.  Abortion policy for servicemember travel and leave has never been in effect, yet, the military has always recruited some of the most talented people in our nation.  If anything, the recruiting woes of the military are a result of the Left-leaning policies of the Administration, which is determined to appease its far-Left flank with expanded abortion funding.

Military members are adaptable, if anything, and have found ways throughout the years to work around restrictive abortion laws and access to abortion services, or have modified their behavior to avoid the need for an abortion in the first place.  A servicemember today who is reconsidering his or her commitment to the armed services because of the Dobbs decision, notwithstanding Sec. Austin’s policy, should probably find another line of work.

The pressure is high on Sen Tuberville to release his hold on those promotions.  In the minds of the liberal Left, the entire defense establishment will cease to function and our national security will be at severe risk if those promotions aren’t allowed to proceed.  But save us the sanctimony.  Senior military leaders know they serve at the pleasure of the President, and are subject to consent by the Senate before they can attain their promotions and move on to other positions.  It comes with the territory.  As a retired Air Force officer, I too was subject to occasional holds, and witnessed many senior leaders who had to wait for months before their promotions were approved by the Senate for no better reason than senators’ scheduling conflicts.  In most cases, the incumbent couldn’t retire or move until their successor’s promotion was approved in the Senate.  In other cases, a deputy or acting leader would fill in temporarily.  This is not new ground.

What is new ground is the blatant, political ploy by the Administration to force the DoD into abortion politics in an attempt to normalize federal abortion funding in the nation’s most trusted institution.  The pressure should not be on Sen Tuberville to release his hold; it should be on Sec. Austin to rescind his abortion policy with a simple stroke of his pen. The men and women of the U.S. military should be shielded from abortion politics and the Secretary of Defense should be leading the charge to protect them.

Mr. LaFrance is a retired Air Force officer and a former DoD liaison to Congress.