CV NEWS FEED // The U.S. Congress is set to vote on the next National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which some observers are saying is being used as a front to advance a pro-abortion agenda.
Ryan Walker, the Acting Executive Director of Heritage Action for America, said that the Biden Administration is attempting “to allow the Department of Defense to provide for leave and subsidized travel to another state or to a facility to receive an abortion.”
Walker added that this is a “direct contradiction of that policy and current law and something that we believe is illegal and should be overturned or rescinded immediately.”
The NDAA, which is usually passed each fiscal year, dates back to the early 1960s. Maiya Clark, Senior Research Associate of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense Congress’s called it the “yearly shaping mechanism for the Department of Defense (DOD).” The $886 billion NDAA currently up for consideration is slated to take effect for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year.
Clark said, “Because it is one of the few authorization bills reliably passed every year, the NDAA assumes oversized importance for both Congress and the DOD.”
The 2024 NDAA can play a critical role in helping the U.S. Armed Forces continue their transformations to deter great-power aggression and win the nation’s wars. This NDAA can have tremendous signaling power to China, Russia, and other potential aggressors in the world.
The Washington Examiner reported that the respective Armed Services committees of both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate drafted their “own version of next year’s defense bill at the end of June.”
“There were nearly 1,400 amendments filed to this bill,” noted CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs Tom McClusky. “How many amendments will be ruled in order is still up in the air. Expect a fight over Joe Biden’s efforts to turn the Defense Department into abortion central.”
In her March report for Heritage, titled “NDAA 2024: Increasing the Readiness of the U.S. Military,” Clark proposed three recommendations for the NDAA, in order to reign in the Biden DoD’s proliferation of abortion in the military.
- Disallow coverage of abortion-related travel expenses.
- Disallow abortions and abortion referrals at VA medical facilities.
- Prevent DOD resources from paying for abortion and sexual-orientation and gender-identity treatments.
So far, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, is one of the few members of Congress who has taken action to stop abortions in the military. As CatholicVote reported, “[Tuberville] used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to block about 250 appointments since March” in response to the DoD’s pro-abortion policy.
As a result of Tuberville’s holds, the U.S. Marine Corps is currently without a Commandant, their usual highest-ranking officer, for the first time since 1859.
>> EXCLUSIVE LOOPCAST INTERVIEW: SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE TAKES ON ABORTION IN THE MILITARY <<
In a letter released Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, wrote:
We are working diligently through regular order on a bipartisan basis to advance appropriations bills. In addition, before we left for the July recess, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act that will invest in our nation’s military and service members and advance our national defense strategy.
We must continue to compete globally and deepen our strategic ties with our allies and partners, so I hope to move this bill quickly. These two areas – appropriations and NDAA – are prime examples of the bipartisan cooperation we strive to achieve.
“Translation?” replied McClusky. “Senator Schumer wants House Republicans to roll over and accept all the questionably legal things the Biden Administration is doing. If they will do quietly remains to be seen.”
Read More about the Biden DoD’s Abortion Agenda
