Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been hammered by liberals, and even some on the right, for holding up high-ranking military promotions to protest the Pentagon’s left-wing policy of ferrying troops to blue states for abortions.
But now Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott has joined Tuberville’s protest in spirit.
Earlier this week, Scott was among 27 Republican senators who issued a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin criticizing the policy that fueled Tuberville’s protest and demanding that it be immediately rescinded.
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In the letter, which Scott’s office posted to his Senate website, the lawmakers argue that Austin has broken his promise to the American people “not to politicize the military.
“Your actions have harmed and threaten to further harm institutional norms within our democracy,” they added.
The letter recalls that in June 2022, four days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Austin issued a memo to senior leaders maintaining that the Defense Department was “authorized to pay for government funded, official travel for active duty personnel to receive abortions outside of the state in which they are stationed.”
Four months later, the Pentagon’s “abortion travel policy” directed the military to pay the travel expenses of active-duty personnel and their dependents to obtain abortions, the senators noted.
That policy was compounded in July 2023, when during a hearing on the abortion travel policy, a senior Austin aide confirmed that included late-term abortions.
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“While the Department may issue regulations, it can only do so under the laws authorized and enacted by Congress. But, Congress never authorized the Department to expend funds to facilitate abortions and, until the Policy was issued, the military never facilitated abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother would be endangered if the unborn child were carried to term,” the senators wrote.
“Now taxpayers—many of whom have deeply-held religious and moral objections to abortions—are on the hook to facilitate the very abortions they fundamentally oppose.”
The lawmakers cited a Marist College poll from January that found 60% of Americans “strongly oppose” using taxpayer funding to pay for an abortion.
“Rather than respect the Supreme Court’s decision, you decided to engage the Department, and our men and women in uniform, in a policy debate properly reserved for the legislature,” the senators continued.
That was done by Austin’s claims that the abortion policy was needed to promote “readiness, recruiting, and retention,” yet he never produced data to support the claim.
The lawmakers pointed out that Austin’s own staff reported that just 12 women have “taken advantage” of his policy since it launched. That, they argued, “undercuts your argument that Dobbs [the Supreme Court decision] has significant recruiting and retention implications.”
“Our men and women in uniform deserve Senate-confirmed leadership but the current situation began with your original sin of promulgating the Policy,” the GOP senators added.
“Much has been made in the press about one Senator’s decision to try and stop your egregious wrongs, without acknowledging the Senate [Democratic] Majority Leader’s refusal to bring general and flag officer nominations to the floor until forced to by Republicans,” they continued.
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“Seeking to circumvent the Senate prerogative of the informal ‘hold’ practice without addressing the underlying causes—the novel Policy and the subsequent refusal of the Majority to bring these nominees to the floor—will not ultimately reconcile this matter. It could create a toxic precedent with lasting negative effects on future military nominations.”
In closing the lawmakers told Austin, “Your decision to issue the Policy politicized the military and placed the wants of a few over the needs of the entire nation.”
“Do the right thing. Rescind the Policy now.”
North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd led the effort to send the letter to Austin.
Besides Sen. Scott, the other GOP lawmakers who signed it included: Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, both of Mississippi; Mike Lee of Utah; Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming; Mike Rounds and Kevin Cramer, both of North Dakota; John Barrasso of Wyoming; Rand Paul of Kentucky; Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer, both of Nebraska; Katie Britt of Alabama; Mike Braun of Indiana; Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of Texas; Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma; Eric Schmitt of Missouri; Roger Marshall of Kansas; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both of Iowa; Tom Cotton and John Boozman, both of Arkansas; John Thune of South Dakota; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.
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