Pro-Life Senator: I’ll Stop Blocking Nominees When Biden Stops Forcing Americans to Fund Abortions

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 10, 2023   |   7:04PM   |   Washington, DC

Pro-life U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville continued to stand strong this week against a new Biden administration policy that forces Americans to fund the killing of unborn babies in abortions through the military.

Despite continued criticism, the Alabama senator said he will not back down on his promise to block Pentagon nominees until the administration reverses the illegal policy.

“We have a law in this country called the Hyde Amendment that says taxpayer money will not be used for abortions, because some people believe in it, some people don’t,” Tuberville told WBHM. “Again, this is a change in the policy from the White House.”

The new Department of Defense 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, Republicans estimate approximately 4,100 more unborn babies will be killed in abortions every year.

This week, U.S. Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer blasted Tuberville for his faithful pro-life stance, calling it “dangerous and reckless,” the Washington Times reports.

“The senator from Alabama’s blanket hold is creating unnecessary uncertainty that … diminishes our global standing as the strongest military in the world,” Schumer said Wednesday.

But Tuberville said the Biden administration and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are the ones to blame for putting their pro-abortion politics ahead of military promotions.

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“This is about a tyrannical executive branch walking all over the United States Senate and doing our jobs,” he said. “This was Secretary Austin’s choice. [He] thought abortion is more important than his highest-level military nominations.”

Here’s more from the Times:

Tuberville said Democrats in Congress have tried to break the hold several times but vowed that he would come to the Senate floor as many times as it takes until the matter is resolved.

“An unprecedented change to the military’s abortion policy ought to go before the people’s elected representatives in Congress. No matter what Democrats say, I’m going to keep my word,” he tweeted last week. “Secretary Austin could end this policy and I would drop my hold.”

According to MSNBC, Tuberville has blocked 184 military promotions over the past several months.

However, 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.

Tuberville, U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and others have pointed out that the new pro-abortion 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.”

Polls consistently show strong public opposition to taxpayer-funded abortionsA 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.

Bans on taxpayer funding for elective abortions used to have strong bipartisan support in Congress. Only recently did Democrat leaders abandon the American people on the issue and begin supporting taxpayer funding for elective abortions – a goal of the abortion industry, which spends huge amounts of money on elections.