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There is no mystery behind Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s unprecedented blockade against military promotions. Indeed, the Alabama Republican’s motivations couldn’t be clearer: The Pentagon, responding to the demise of Roe v. Wade, created a policy to ensure that all American troops have access to reproductive health care, at which point the GOP senator began his tantrum.
It was against this backdrop that Tuberville insisted this week that his abortion-related tactics are “not about abortion.” The Alabaman wrote on Twitter:
“This is not about abortion. This is about tax-payer funded abortion that Congress NEVER authorized.”
First, there’s something inherently amazing about watching Tuberville pretend his blockade, which has everything to do with abortion, has nothing to do with abortion. Second, to characterize the Pentagon’s policy as “taxpayer funded abortion” is wrong: As an Associated Press report explained this week, the existing military policy “does not fund abortions.”
Rather, what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin actually did was order the DOD “to allow troops and dependents, consistent with federal law, to take time off and use official travel to get to other states for reproductive care not available locally. That care includes in vitro fertilization and other pregnancy aids that also may not be accessible close by.”
I don’t know if Tuberville understands this, but the claims he published online about his own strategy are plainly untrue.
Austin, meanwhile, told reporters yesterday that the Republican senator’s approach continues to have an effect. “I would imagine our adversaries would look at something like this and be pretty happy we create this kind of turbulence in the force,” the secretary explained.
Also yesterday, Austin spoke directly to Tuberville, and while the senator said the two had a “good, short” conversation, his blockade continues.
It’s tempting to think that the GOP lawmaker would fear a political backlash, especially in a state like Alabama where efforts to deliberately undermine the U.S. military would probably be seen as controversial, but Tuberville seems convinced that he can get away with this — and an NBC News report suggested that he’s probably correct.
NBC News spoke to dozens of Tuberville’s constituents, and most said they hadn’t heard about his hold on military promotions or his comments about white nationalism.
The less pressure the senator feels at home, the more likely it is that his months-long tantrum will continue.
The White House, meanwhile, continues to lean into the controversy.
“Senator Tuberville is inflicting more damage on all branches of the American military, to the advantage of our adversaries, with each day. He should reverse course and choose his country over himself,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a written statement yesterday. “Being the senator who, in the words of Democratic and Republican defense secretaries, is ‘harming the families of those who serve our nation in uniform,’ is not a title anyone should want.”