Senate Republicans Have A Choice: Back Tuberville Or Fail A Majority Of Americans On Abortion Again
If Senate Republicans are truly the pro-life champions they claim to be, they have no choice but to back Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he fends off the Biden administration’s abortion extremism.
So far, they are failing at their task. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Thune have gone after Tuberville for his recent comments and decision to stonewall certain high-profile promotions until the Biden administration stops subsidizing service members’ abortions with taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, their ally Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and a few other unnamed senators joined the dogpile on the “radical conservative populism” that pro-life legislators like Tuberville apparently tout.
“I’m concerned. I think that they are allowing for an exposure of vulnerability from a national security perspective and wish he would figure out another way to make his point,” Murkowski told the Washington Examiner.
The only other way to “make his point” would be if GOP leadership in the Senate find a way to bypass the Democrat majority to pass the National Defense Authorization Act with a ban on the taxpayer-funded abortion Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has pledged to continue offering to service members and their families.
Passing the NDAA with an abortion prohibition is not an impossible feat considering President Joe Biden, Democrats, and Republicans all seem keen on keeping our struggling military funded. But it is a difficult task because — Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate aside — it requires convincing establishment Republicans who openly hate their voters to comply with their constituents’ wishes.
Partisan Plotting
Despite severe pushback from the Biden administration and corporate media, the NDAA passed the Republican-led House last week equipped with amendments that prohibit Americans’ hard-earned dollars from funding abortions and irreversible mutilative surgeries for gender dysphoric individuals in the military.
Under normal circumstances, the universal urgency about passing such key legislation means Senate Republicans have the leverage to demand a vote on the House GOP’s key abortion amendment and appease the majority of Americans who oppose using taxpayer dollars to end life in the womb.
None of the staunch military-industrial complex supporters in Senate GOP leadership seem interested in defending their colleague Tuberville from false narratives, much less interested in courting the votes of any Democrat senators who might be willing to sacrifice the regime’s abortion agenda to fund the military. Yet, even if Senate Republicans do get a vote on the amendment, it won’t be enough to end the DOD’s illegal abortion scheme.
The congressional veterans on the right side of the aisle may vote in favor of ending the Biden regime’s taxpayer-funded abortion project, but they know that without any extra shoving, an amendment like the one that passed the House was doomed to die in the Senate from the start.
In a way, this is a victory for establishment Republicans who will likely win good scores from pro-life organizations but don’t have to suffer the political consequences of risking their relationships with Democrats, the Biden administration, or top brass.
But it wouldn’t be a victory for their voters and the majority of the American people.
The Ultimatum
There is only one path Republicans can take to appease the millions of voters who say taxpayer-funded abortion is illegal and unwanted in this country, and that is supporting Tuberville’s stonewalling until the administration complies.
GOP senators have access to the procedural tools they need to force the DOD’s hand on this issue, as evidenced by Tuberville’s nearly half-a-year hold on what could end up being hundreds of military promotions.
“Where are the rest of the senators in calling out the administration as it attempts to force taxpayers to pay for abortions for military members?” CEO and President of Concerned Women for America Penny Nance wrote for The Hill. “Instead of blocking and tackling for coach [Tuberville] while he’s being pummeled by the left, his fellow Republicans are not even on the field; some even seem to be playing for the opposing team. They should take a page from coach’s playbook and muster up the courage to challenge Biden’s lawlessness on abortion.”
Unfortunately, instead of calling out the Biden administration’s lawlessness, some Republican senators opposed a resolution authored by Tuberville that would stop the Biden administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs from handing out abortions. They have also repeatedly failed to support key pro-life legislation that would have finally brought the U.S. up to speed with the type of restrictions other civilized countries enacted years ago.
There’s no doubt that the Biden administration’s recent actions when it comes to the military are horrific, unpopular, and exacerbating the nation’s recruitment and readiness crisis. As Sen. Mike Lee explained in a Twitter thread over the weekend, Biden’s DOD is more willing to pay to end life in the womb than to subsidize bereavement for service members or continue writing paychecks to the families of service members imprisoned overseas.
Senate Republicans’ actions, or inaction, when it comes to pushing back against the DOD’s abortion agenda are even more egregious because they deny the overwhelming majority of voters who oppose taxpayer-funded abortion a chance to hold the Biden regime accountable for its extralegal abortion promotion.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
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