The House of Representatives on Friday approved a massive National Defense Authorization Act, complete with an amendment blocking the Pentagon from funding abortions with taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, had introduced an amendment to the $883.7 billion act blocking President Joe Biden’s administration from using taxpayer funds to reimburse abortion-related expenses.
Van Duyne emphasized on Friday her efforts to “support women throughout their pregnancies and after, instead of incentivizing abortion on demand.”
Her amendment was approved by the House in a 214-to-207 vote. Two Republicans voted against the pro-life amendment (Reps. John Duarte of California and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania) and one Democrat voted in favor of it (Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas).
Duarte, Fitzpatrick, and Cuellar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., blocked hundreds of military promotions for more than 10 months as pushback to the Pentagon policy promoting abortion, saying that until the policy was changed, he would not approve any military promotions, arguing that the policy is illegal and violates the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is a measure dating back to the 1970s that prohibits federal taxpayer funding of most abortions.
The Alabama lawmaker, who received heavy criticism from his Democratic colleagues, ended his holds in December. Tuberville had also come under fire from some GOP senators, who called on him to give up his effort and allow the promotions to move forward despite the Pentagon’s unchanged pro-abortion policy.
But other leaders—including Ryan Williams, president and publisher of The Claremont Review of Books and publisher of The American Mind; Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project; and Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation—praised Tuberville for his commitment to standing against the Pentagon’s pro-abortion policy, saying that his hold “on military promotions over the Pentagon’s unjust decision to fund abortion tourism is a righteous manifestation of the Senate’s responsibility to scrutinize military leadership.”
The passage of the defense bill complete with the pro-life amendment was celebrated by pro-life groups, such as SBA Pro-Life America, which congratulated Van Duyne and House Republicans on the amendment.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said in a statement Friday that the United States “must provide our military with all the tools they need to defend our nation and deter our enemies” as the U.S. faces “increasingly hostile threats from Communist China, Russia, and Iran.”
“This year’s NDAA will refocus our military on its core mission of defending America and its interests across the globe, fund the deployment of the National Guard to the southwest border, expedite innovation and reduce the acquisition timeline for new weaponry, support our allies, and strengthen our nuclear posture and missile defense programs,” the Louisiana Republican said.
“This legislation also reinforces our commitment to America’s brave men and women in uniform, and their families, by making landmark investments in their quality of life,” Johnson added. “I’m proud that we’re providing significant pay increases to our service members, reducing barriers to employment for military spouses, and improving military housing and access to child care.”
In October 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a memorandum for senior Pentagon leadership on “ensuring access to reproductive health care.” That memorandum announced that the Defense Department would establish “travel and transportation allowances for service members and their dependents … 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.”
The move was a direct response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the memo said. It claimed that funding abortion travel would be done in accordance with federal law, but Republicans noted at the time that funding travel and transportation to get abortions through the DOD would “in and of itself violate federal law” and contradict the Defense Department’s “past recognition, interpretation, and implementation of this law.”
