Tuberville on Defense Department promotion holds: 'Either we're pro-life or we're not'

May 23, 2023

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is holding the line on not giving approval to any Defense Department promotions until the Biden administration budges on a new policy to give military time off and paying travel costs for soldiers and staff that live in areas with abortion restrictions to go out of state to obtain abortions.

“[T]axpayers are paying for travel, they’re paying for three extra weeks off,” he said. “I mean, it’s atrocious what’s going on here. But they’ve politicized it. I’m standing by my word."

According to federal Hyde Amendment, it is illegal to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, but the federal government is bending that law so hard that in practice, it is functionally broken in this instance.

“Most [Republicans] are [supporting the hold],” Tuberville said. “We’ve got a few of them that I’m disappointed in. As I said when I stood up in a caucus meeting the other day, I said, ‘Either we’re pro-life or we’re not, OK?’ To me, that’s one of the top policies that we have in the Republican Party — is that we’re pro-life."

He agreed with the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother and said those existed in the military as well as many of the states with restrictions on abortions as early as six weeks gestation.

"If we don’t stand up in the Republican Party, don’t get some backbone, this country is gone as we know it," he concluded.