Legislation introduced Friday by House Republicans would prohibit service members from getting reimbursed for travel related to abortion, reports Fox News.
The Department of Defense last October announced a new healthcare policy that allows service members to request time off to receive reproductive health care without loss of pay as part of the agency's "Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care" memo released after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
"Travel and transportation allowances may be authorized for Service members and dependents to travel to access non-covered reproductive health care," the Pentagon said in February. "Travel and transportation allowances may be authorized when access to non-covered reproductive health care services is not available within the local area of the member's permanent duty station, temporary duty location, or the last location the dependent was transported on Government orders."
Some Congressional Republicans are not satisfied with that.
"The Department of Defense's complete disregard for these longstanding pro-life provisions is unacceptable and must be stopped immediately," said Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who introduced the legislation. "The DOD exists to protect our national security interests and to defend against our enemies, and it has no business using taxpayer dollars to contribute to the demise of the unborn."
Jackson slammed the Biden administration for its flagrant "political decision to create an abortion travel slush fund" and said it "flies in the face of current law and violates nearly half a century of bipartisan consensus to protect Americans' conscience rights by preventing taxpayer dollars from funding most abortions.
"Our military is not a political pawn for the left's social agenda," he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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