Forty House Republicans, led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), are demanding that the Department of Defense (DOD) shut down a fund it set up to pay the travel expenses of service members seeking abortions.
Roy also had a message for any Republican colleagues who join Democrats in backing the DOD action.
“And any Republican who votes to fund or authorize this in December should be asked one simple question: Why?”
Roy was referring to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Oct. 20 memorandum, titled “Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care,” in which he said, “I am committed to the Department taking all appropriate action, within its authority and consistent with applicable federal law, as soon as possible to ensure that our Service members and their families can access reproductive health care and our health care providers can operate effectively.”
Austin’s memorandum was issued nearly four months after the Supreme Court in its decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion during the first six months of pregnancy as a privacy right, the existence of which is implied by the Constitution.
In the more recent decision, the court’s majority said no nationwide right to abortion is mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, so the issue must be left to the people to decide, acting through their state legislatures.
As a result, some states are expected to continue allowing abortions, while others ban them to some degree. With DOD service members and employees stationed throughout the country, Austin’s memorandum is intended to ensure access to the procedure regardless of the location of any DOD domestic duty station.
Roy was joined by 40 House Republican colleagues in signing an Oct. 26 letter to Austin that was made public by the Texas Republican. The letter condemned Austin’s decision as an “unprecedented politicization” of the U.S. military.
“This move represents an unprecedented politicization of our Armed Forces, which has unfortunately been a hallmark of the Biden Administration from the start. Your decision to bypass Congress and establish a DOD abortion travel fund flies in the face of nearly a half-century of bipartisan consensus to respect the sincere beliefs of millions of pro-life Americans by restraining the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions,” the signers told Austin.
“It is even more disgraceful that you are using our brave service members and their families—tasked with providing for our nation’s security—as the vehicle to push this extreme policy on the American public. This obvious political gamesmanship will only serve to further undermine Americans’ trust in the U.S. Armed Forces and further hamstring future military recruitment efforts. We demand the immediate rescission of this unconscionable directive.”
The letter writers were referring to the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. The amendment, which was first adopted in 1977 and was authored by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), does permit federal funds to pay for abortions if the mother’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.
Austin’s memorandum comes as U.S. military recruiters are failing to achieve their annual recruitment goals for the first time since the all-volunteer force was created under then-President Richard Nixon in 1972.
