The U.S. military is supposed to protect the lives of Americans. Now, it’s subsidizing the slaughter of them.
The Department of Defense on Thursday published its plans to cover the travel costs of service members who are either getting an abortion themselves or accompanying their wives who are.
Under the plan, troops will be given up to 20 weeks into the pregnancy to provide their departments with notification and request abortion-related travel.
In the memorandum that was released, the Pentagon wrote that “the DOD health care provider will place the Service member considering pregnancy termination in a medical temporary nondeployable status without reference to the Service member’s pregnancy status, until appropriate medical care and the necessary recovery period are complete.”
Additionally, the memo directs every branch of the military to allow administrative absence — which means there is no loss of pay — for those getting abortion or fertility treatments that don’t fall under military health care provider coverage.
The new policy goes into effect within 30 days. Prior to this updated directive, the Department of Defense exclusively covered abortion in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother was in danger. The new regulation, however, makes military coverage for abortion much more expansive.
Per the DOD, the change is intended “to facilitate official travel to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member’s permanent duty station.”
One senior official with the Department told Military Times that “Service members and families are required to travel and move to meet the needs of the nation. And while they certainly have a voice in the process of where they’re assigned, ultimately, decisions are made in the best interest of the department’s mission requirements.”
“And we strongly believe that these moves should not impact their access to essential health care. These policies that we’re releasing today will help ensure long-term that we’re able to recruit, retain and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force,” he added.
Republican lawmakers lashed out at the news.
“Today, [President Joe] Biden’s administration chose to make the Department of Defense an abortion travel agency over a lethal fighting force,” Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in a statement. “As I have repeatedly told the political leaders of this administration, taking this action jeopardizes congressional authorizations for our warfighters. I am extremely disappointed the administration chose once again to use our military to placate the radical left.”
Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also released a statement in which he declared that “The Pentagon should be singularly focused on improving readiness and lethality, and there is no compelling argument or data that shows aiding abortions helps us complete that mission.”
Wicker further said that “Heavy-handed, far-left social policy has no place at the Department of Defense” and vowed he would “demand answers and accountability on this disastrous decision.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has stated that, in response to the new abortion policy, he will vote to block all Department of Defense nominations that come before the Senate.
“The Secretary of Defense is following through with his radical plan to facilitate thousands of abortions a year with taxpayer dollars,” the senator stated. “So, I will follow through with my plan to hold all Department of Defense (DoD) civilian, flag, and general officer nominations that come before the U.S. Senate.”
He further called the move “an illegal expansion of DoD authority and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
The policy represents the Democrat-controlled executive branch’s attempt to continue the abortion fight after last year’s striking down of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.
In conservative states, legislatures are moving to clamp down the practice of child-killing through more restrictive abortion laws.
In South Carolina, the abortion lobby gained a momentary victory when the state’s Supreme Court in January struck down a six-week abortion ban, which was already on the books at the time the Supreme Court killed Roe and thus went into effect upon that decision.
But the author of the January ruling and the deciding vote, former Justice Kaye Hearn, has now retired and since been replaced. Thus, Republicans in the South Carolina Legislature see an opening to pass new pro-life legislation, prompting them to pass on Wednesday a bill prohibiting abortion from the moment of conception — with exceptions for rape, incest, and threat to the life of the mother.
Kentucky is also a battleground in the abortion fight. There, pro-abortion groups attempted to have the state Supreme Court block two abortion restrictions, but the high court on Thursday shot these requests down.
In the lawsuit to which the Supreme Court responded, abortion providers targeted an abortion-banning “trigger” law that was passed in 2019 and made enforceable after the overturning of Roe. A six-week heartbeat ban that was previously blocked by a federal court was also targeted by the lawsuit.
Originally, a circuit court judge placed a temporary injunction on these policies. But an appeals court stayed the injunction, and now the Supreme Court has declined to reinstate it.
