Service women will soon be able to have their travel expenses paid and receive up to three weeks of leave to obtain an abortion out of state or receive fertility treatments; they also will have up to 20 weeks to notify their commands that they are pregnant, according to three new Defense Department policies.
The department released policies Thursday designed to improve troops’ access to reproductive health care and abortion services, clarifying a memo published in October by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directing the service branches to ensure that their members could access abortions and reproductive health care that isn’t covered by military health.
The first policy covers up to 21 days of leave for service members to get an abortion or obtain fertility treatments and for military personnel who accompany their spouse or dependent for such care, without taking those days from other leave allowances.
According to the policy, the period of absence will be limited to the minimum number of days needed to receive the care and transportation.
The second memo calls for coverage of travel and transportation for those who must leave their duty station to obtain such care, while the third gives service members up to 20 weeks to inform their commands of a pregnancy — a policy that would allow members to privately obtain an abortion if they choose.
The services have 30 days to implement the new policies, according to Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gil Cisneros Jr.
“It is DoD policy that … service members will be able to access lawfully available non-covered reproductive health care regardless of where they are stationed,” state the policies, signed by Cisneros.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision that repealed Roe v. Wade triggered a slew of state laws banning or sharply curtailing pregnancy terminations. Shortly after the court announced its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Cisneros said the Pentagon would work to ensure that troops would be protected in states that have banned or restricted the procedure. . . . (read more on Military.com)
Military’s New Abortion Policy Outrages Republicans (Newsweek, 17 FEB 23)
Republican lawmakers are expressing their outrage with the military’s newest policy that allows service members to request time off to receive reproductive health care without loss of pay.
Representative Mike Roger, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said the military is not meant to “advance the woke, Socialist Biden agenda” or to “pay for abortion on demand.”
Our brave military is here to protect our freedom and our nation. It is not meant to advance the woke, Socialist Biden agenda, and it is certainly not meant to pay for abortion on demand. Joe Biden is a disgrace to our nation. https://t.co/VXAyMrm76L
— Mike Rogers (@RepMikeRogersAL) February 17, 2023
“Today, the Biden administration chose to make the Department of Defense an abortion travel agency over a lethal fighting force,” he said in a statement. “I am extremely disappointed the Biden administration chose once again to use our military to placate the radical left.”
Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt decried the “politicization” of the military, calling taxpayer dollars for abortions, woke consultants and climate alarmism “profoundly dangerous.”
Others expressed outrage at the Defense Department’s apparent disregard for human life.
“The President is now paying for abortion travel,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted. “Destroying innocent life doesn’t help women or strengthen our military.”
The President is now paying for abortion travel. Destroying innocent life doesn’t help women or strengthen our military.https://t.co/Yh3DOewLz0
— Senator Marco Rubio (@SenMarcoRubio) February 17, 2023
Utah Senator Mike Lee said the new policy indicates that DOD does not want its service members to have children.
“When the Pentagon pays for your travel and gives you three weeks of paid leave to have an abortion, could women serving in the military reasonably hear the message as ‘we really don’t want any of you to get pregnant, and if you do, we really, REALLY want you to have an abortion?'” he said in a tweet.
He said the military’s message “comes across loud and suffocatingly clear” that they “frown” on service members’ decision to have a baby. . . . (read more)
The Defense Department tries to circumvent the Hyde Amendment (American Thinker, 19 FEB 23)
hen it comes to woke, there’s nothing more woke than making sure women continue to get abortions. This is certainly true for the Biden military, which no longer sees defending America as its primary mission. Instead, its role is to keep its base happy and, because its base loves abortion, the Biden Defense Department has figured out how to keep those abortions going…and to heck with the Hyde Amendment.
When it comes to federal monies and abortion, the Hyde Amendment is unambiguous. It bars the use of any federal money (i.e., dollars the government takes from taxpayers via its police powers) to fund abortions other than those that save the mother’s life or that affect pregnancies from rape and incest.
The problem for the Biden military is that, once the Supreme Court (correctly) held in Dobbs that abortion is not a constitutional right and that the federal government has no say in it . . . .
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