Senate Democrats say Tuberville risking national security with his abortion protest
Samantha-Jo Roth
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Senate Democrats said Tuesday there are national security implications if Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) continues to hold up more than 160 promotions of military commanders over an abortion policy in the Department of Defense.
Last month, Tuberville followed through with a promise to block civilian and flag officer nominations in the Pentagon, protesting a new DOD policy providing leave and reimbursement for service members or their spouses who need to travel to get an abortion.
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“The senator from Alabama clearly risks permanently injecting politics into confirmation of routine military promotions, something risking our national security,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This is severely hindering our military’s work in critical areas like the Pacific and the Middle East, our general to NATO — he’s one of the people he’s blocking at a time where we have a war with Putin in Ukraine.”
Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he’ll continue to block nominations until the Pentagon rescinds the policy. The blockade now forces the Senate to consider and vote on each nomination rather than fast-tracking them and approving them in batches, severely prolonging the process.
“This is about not forcing the taxpayers of this country to fund abortion. That’s been a bipartisan consensus for more than 40 years,” Tuberville said Tuesday. “The American taxpayer [is] on the hook to pay for travel and time off for elective abortion.”
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Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the problem could get worse in the future. Officials testified on Tuesday that 70 other three- and four-star generals and admirals are scheduled to rotate into new roles this year.
“Now they are becoming political hostages, and that is a dangerous trend for our military and for our political process,” Reed said. “We are at a process now where we are seeing critical positions that are in jeopardy of not being filled in a timely way.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) attempted to appeal to Republicans, calling Tuberville’s hold on Pentagon nominees unprecedented, and invoked his former colleague on the Armed Services Committee, the late Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain.
“I think it’s pretty clear what John McCain would think of this issue. Fegardless of what you think about reproductive rights, our military should be above the political fray, and one senator should not interfere with our military leadership decisions,” Blumenthal said.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, defended Tuberville’s actions on Tuesday and said the nominees are still able to move through the process.
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“It is his prerogative, any individual senator can use their power and their rights as a senator to get the attention of the administration,” Thune said on Tuesday. “The administration can move those nominees, all it takes is 51 votes and if they choose to, they can move them along.”
During a hearing in the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) spoke out against Tuberville’s maneuvering, calling it a “tactic he chose to use” and “not one that I would use.”