WASHINGTON—On Wednesday, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) led 40 of his House Republican colleagues in demanding Biden’s Department of Defense immediately rescind its directive to create a new abortion travel fund for service members and their families.
Last week, DoD released a memo announcing their plans to direct American taxpayer dollars to this fund – an unprecedented politicization of the armed forces.
“Your decision to bypass Congress and establish a DoD abortion travel fund flies in the face of nearly a half-century of bipartisan consensus to respect the sincere beliefs of millions of pro-life Americans by restraining the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions,” the members wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“It is even more disgraceful that you are using our brave service members and their families – tasked with providing for our nation’s security – as the vehicle to push this extreme policy on the American public,” the legislators added.
Rep. Roy said:
The United States military is facing a historic recruiting crisis as a result of wokeness and its strategically foolish COVID shot mandate. The Biden administration’s response is to kill more unborn Americans.
By creating an abortion travel slush fund with hard-earned taxpayer dollars, the Biden Administration is outright mocking the majority of Americans who oppose their tax dollars being used to end life in the womb.
Secretary Austin must immediately rescind this directive; it’s as abhorrent as it is unconscionable. And any Republican who votes to fund or authorize this in December should be asked one simple question: why?
Full text of the letter can be found below and at the link here.
Dear Secretary Austin,
We write to express our opposition to the recent Department of Defense (DoD) directive included in the memorandum entitled “Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care” dated October 20, 2022. Among several policy changes, this memo directs the unprecedented use of American taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortions for service members and their families, against the wishes of the American people from all walks of life.
This memo asserts that the Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has impacted the readiness, recruiting, and retention of the Force. Therefore, it directs the DoD to establish “travel and transportation allowances for service members and their dependents” to “facilitate official travel to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member’s permanent duty station.” This move represents an unprecedented politicization of our Armed Forces, which has unfortunately been a hallmark of the Biden Administration from the start.
Your decision to bypass Congress and establish a DoD abortion travel fund flies in the face of nearly a half-century of bipartisan consensus to respect the sincere beliefs of millions of pro-life Americans by restraining the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions. It is even more disgraceful that you are using our brave service members and their families – tasked with providing for our nation’s security – as the vehicle to push this extreme policy on the American public. This obvious political gamesmanship will only serve to further undermine Americans’ trust in the U.S. Armed Forces and further hamstring future military recruitment efforts.
We demand the immediate rescission of this unconscionable directive. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Chip Roy
Member of Congress
Jeff Duncan
Member of Congress
Dan Bishop
Member of Congress
Michael Cloud
Member of Congress
Tim Burchett
Member of Congress
Bob Good
Member of Congress
Mary E. Miller
Member of Congress
Jake Ellzey
Member of Congress
Randy K. Weber
Member of Congress
Vicky Hartzler
Member of Congress
Warren Davidson
Member of Congress
Kevin Hern
Member of Congress
Louie Gohmert
Member of Congress
Lauren Boebert
Member of Congress
Clay Higgins
Member of Congress
Roger Williams
Member of Congress
Diana Harshbarger
Member of Congress
Doug Lamborn
Member of Congress
Jim Banks
Member of Congress
Mike Johnson
Member of Congress
W. Gregrory Steube
Member of Congress
Gus M. Bilirakis
Member of Congress
Ben Cline
Member of Congress
Elise M. Stefanik
Member of Congress
Burgess Owens
Member of Congress
Bruce Westerman
Member of Congress
Andy Biggs
Member of Congress
Ronny L. Jackson, M.D.
Member of Congress
Michael Waltz
Member of Congress
Brad Finstad
Member of Congress
Ralph Norman
Member of Congress
Barry Moore
Member of Congress
Ann Wagner
Member of Congress
Michael Guest
Member of Congress
Debbie Lesko
Member of Congress
Jack Bergman
Member of Congress
John R. Moonelaar
Member of Congress
Bill Posey
Member of Congress
Brian Mast
Member of Congress
Mark E. Green
Member of Congress
Scott Franklin
Member of Congress