FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A coalition of conservative activists and policy experts is urging Congress to reject a bill making women eligible to be drafted into the military.
One group, Concerned Women for America, sent a letter with dozens of individual co-signers in response to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s approving an annual defense package containing the controversial draft provision.
“This monumental policy change would force the U.S. military to erase key biological differences between males and females that will affect readiness in wartime,” reads Concerned Women for America’s letter Thursday, which was shared exclusively with The Daily Signal.
“The Senate should not buy into the lie that women’s equality with men means that the sexes are the same,” the letter says.
Numerous representatives of military policy, religious, and research organizations signed onto the letter from Concerned Women for America, as did several regional CWA chapters.
The letter highlights research showing that “most women cannot meet combat arms standards while most men can,” adding:
‘Gender-neutral’ call-ups of both men and women would jam the induction pipeline and slow mobilization at the worst possible time—when our soldiers are fighting and dying on the battlefield.
Penny Nance, president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, described the current draft of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025 as “social experimentation” in a comment to The Daily Signal.
“An NDAA that drafts our daughters and granddaughters is a nonstarter, and with this letter, we are building a coalition to call on members of courage to oppose its advancement and will rally opposition to it from American women,” Nance said of the message to Congress.
The call to reject the defense bill as drafted came one day after another letter demanding the same of both House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The decision by the Senate Armed Services Committee to draft women “flies in the face of truth and everything that we claim to stand for as conservatives,” Advancing American Freedom writes in its own letter, which dozens of activists, policy experts, and current and former government officials also signed. The letter calls the proposal to draft women a denial of “logic” and “common sense.”
Johnson’s office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the House speaker opposes drafting women, but declined to comment further to The Daily Signal. McConnell’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Other Republican lawmakers got vocal on the social media platform X about their intent to stop the defense bill as written.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted a reply to Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, writing: “We Will Not Draft Women. I’m with @ChipRoyTX—this will happen over my dead body.”
It’s not clear when—or whether—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will allow the defense package to come to a vote by the full Senate, The Hill reported.
