Anti-abortion Senator Blocks Pentagon

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville is a man of priorities. Topping his list is stopping the US Army from assisting service members who want abortions. For the Alabama politician, that goal trumps the appointment of a new US military leadership at a time when the country is facing one of the greatest geopolitical threats in recent history.

Since February, Tuberville has blocked more than 260 promotions of senior Pentagon officers. He says he won’t lift his objections until the Pentagon ends its abortion policy, which grants troops a few days’ leave for reproductive health care — including abortion — and covers their costs if they or their loved ones have to travel because they’re stationed in states are where access to abortion is prohibited or restricted.

The new policy, announced in February, comes in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973. Now it’s up to each of the 50 states to enact their own reproductive health laws. At least 26, including Alabama, have already opted to restrict abortion rights. Because troops cannot choose where to deploy, the Pentagon issued the new rules to accommodate this change.

Tuberville, a former football coach who was elected Senator in 2020, has made it clear he has no intention of backing down even as the Marine Corps operates without a Senate-appointed commander for the first time in a century. and this despite the fact that more than half of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will have to be replaced in the coming months. Not even knowing that a military power vacuum is inadvisable given tensions with China and Russia is enough to sway him.

The most pressing case is that of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, who was elected by US President Joe Biden to chair the Joint Chiefs, replacing Mark A. Milley, whose term ends in September. “We’re going to lose talent,” Brown warned senators at Tuesday’s confirmation hearing. He also predicted that Tuberville’s indefinite blockade of senior appointments would result in less experienced commanders temporarily filling key positions, arguing that increasing the family and financial burden on soldiers was not a good strategy going forward.

Meanwhile, the US Army is struggling to recruit new recruits. General James McConville, the Army chief of staff, told The Associated Press that the armed forces are expected to recruit more than 50,000 troops this year compared to 2022, but still well short of the stated target of 65,000. McConville’s term is also coming to an end, but due to the Tuberville blockade, there is no sign that his successor, Randy George, will be confirmed by the Senate until he leaves office in August.

Are White Nationalists Racist?

Several Republican senators have tried unsuccessfully to sway Tuberville, who also made headlines this week for something other than his stubbornness. The Alabama senator has been at the center of a media storm for his comments about white nationalists. Tuberville had told a local radio station it was a “matter of opinion” whether white nationalists were racists. When questioned by CNN about those comments on Monday, the senator replied, “My opinion of a white nationalist, if anyone wants to call him a white nationalist, is, to me, that of an American.”

However, when reporters collected statements the next day criticizing Tuberville from both Democrats and Republicans, the senator relented. On that issue at least, he relented, telling reporters in the Capitol that white nationalists were “racists.”