Congressman Mike Johnson joined U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville this week in demanding the Biden administration repeal an “unlawful” new policy that forces taxpayers to help pay for military members to abort their unborn babies in elective abortions.
On Tuesday, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, accused Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of trying to find a “crafty workaround” to skirt laws that ban funding for abortions, NTD News reports.
“I get that you’re trying to find a crafty workaround, but it’s a blatant violation,” Johnson told Austin during a U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearing.
The new department policy requires taxpayers to pay travel costs and paid time off for military service members and their families to abort their unborn babies. As a result, approximately 4,1000 more unborn babies could be killed in abortions every year, Republican lawmakers said.
Johnson said the policy clearly violates Title 10 Section 1093 of the U.S. Code, which states that “funds available to the Department of Defense may not be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or in a case in which the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest,” according to the report.
Other pro-life lawmakers have been demanding that the policy be revoked, too, including Tuberville, an Alabama Republican who has been leading the fight.
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For the past few weeks, Tuberville has been boldly standing up for unborn babies and American taxpayers by blocking Pentagon nominees until the Biden administration reverses the pro-abortion policy.
Despite continued criticism from Democrats and news outlets, Tuberville said that he will not stop until the policy is gone.
“I hate to have to do this. It’s unfortunate, but we make the laws over here. The DoD doesn’t. This is not about abortion. It’s about taxpayer-funded abortions,” he said Monday in response to criticism, according to Fox News.
His actions do not completely block nominees. Tuberville’s objections just prevent the U.S. Senate from voting to confirm long lists of nominees at once, as it typically does; instead, lawmakers must vote on each nominee one at a time, which takes longer.
Other pro-life Republicans in the House and Senate also have been urging the administration to reverse the order.
Speaking to the defense secretary Tuesday, Johnson said Congress makes laws about how tax dollars are spent, not administration officials, and Congress has not repealed the ban on taxpayer funding for elective abortions in the military.
“This is a statute that was created by the people’s elected representatives and the last time I checked, not a single person in this country voted for you,” he told Austin.
Austin said his department issued the policy “based on sound legal advice,” and funding for abortion travel is “important to our force.”
But Johnson expressed confidence that the policy will not hold up in court, telling Austin: “It will be challenged in court. I’m certain … you will certainly lose it.” He urged the defense secretary to “save us all the hassle involved” and repeal the policy.
Recently, U.S. House Republicans introduced legislation to reverse the order and strengthen the law that bans taxpayer funding for abortions in the military.
Polls consistently show strong public opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions. A new Marist poll found 60 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in the U.S. Additionally, 78 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries.
In February, LifeNews published a list of 25 recent polls that show Americans support legal protections for unborn babies.
