FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 16, 2023
Contact: Mary Owens, [email protected]
Pro-Life Republicans Fight Back to Stop Illegal Policy Facilitating Elective Abortions
Washington, D.C. – Today the U.S. Department of Defense issued guidance to begin implementing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s October 20, 2022 directive that the DoD pay the cost of travel for servicemembers and their dependents to receive elective (“non-covered”) abortions. The DoD has long been prohibited from funding elective abortions for service members.
The guidance includes:
- Change to notification standards – servicemembers will have until 20 weeks to notify their commanding officer of a pregnancy.
- Administrative absence of up to 21 days for elective abortions.
- Establishment of travel allowances to cover expenses surrounding the non-covered abortion.
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) announced he will place a hold on all DoD civilian and general/flag officer nominations if the policy is implemented. In a letter thanking Tuberville, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America noted, “This new policy will facilitate the cruel deaths of approximately 4,100 vulnerable unborn children every year.”
SBA Pro-Life America slammed the Biden-Harris administration and praised pro-life Republicans in response:
“The Biden-Harris administration has turned to outright lawlessness to impose abortion without any limits right up to birth, paid for by taxpayers, in all 50 states,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Our nation is at its best when defending the lives and rights of the most innocent and vulnerable. Seven in 10 Americans want greater protections for unborn children and their mothers and reject taxpayer-funded abortion on demand. But Democrats in Washington will stop at nothing to prop up the abortion industry, even flagrantly breaking the law.
“We thank Senator Tuberville and all our allies working to expose and stop the Biden-Harris administration’s extreme assault on the unborn, the will of the people and every noble institution we have.”
More than a dozen states have taken action to protect life, with the potential to save more than 125,000 lives in the first year after the Dobbs Supreme Court decision. Secretary Austin previously characterized these protections as “unusual, extraordinary, hardship, or emergency circumstances” that interfere with military readiness.
SBA Pro-Life America is tracking the pro-abortion extremism of the Biden-Harris administration at sbaprolife.org/biden-harris.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a network of more than one million pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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