Reply to Bennet: Why women in the military don’t choose where to serve – a commentary on Tuberville, Bennet, and CNN

Michael Bennet is a Democrat from Colorado. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion on it.

The Pentagon has been allowed to provide abortions in limited circumstances for decades, and the Hyde Amendment says federal funds can be used to perform abortions in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is at risk. Tuberville acknowledged that the “military has performed abortions for years,” but that he doesn’t “recall one military person ever complaining that we weren’t performing enough abortions.”

The number of women enlisting in the military has grown significantly over time. They now represent roughly a fifth of the total force and over a third of our civilian workforce. But when women volunteer for active duty, they, like any other service member, don’t choose where to serve. The Pentagon decides that.

Defending the Right to Choose: How Do Military Bases Have Protected Women from Abortion? A Brief Report on Texas, Alabama, and Florida

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Wade, 18 states have imposed restrictions on abortion. Ten have no exceptions for any kind of incest. The freedom of women to travel from one state to another for reproductive care was introduced by radical state legislators. Several states have begun chipping away at a woman’s right to choose.

Texas, home to Fort Hood – one of the largest military bases in the US, has posted $10,000 bounties for residents who successfully sue anyone who has helped in accessing or performing an abortion after it is no longer legal.

Alabama, home to six military bases, has threatened doctors and nurses with up to 99 years in jail for performing an abortion. The state’s attorney general even suggested using a chemical endangerment law – which is designed to protect kids from meth – to prosecute women for ending their pregnancies with a medication abortion pill.

In Florida, which is home to 21 military bases, Gov. Ron DeSantis just endorsed a six-week abortion ban. He might be unaware that a third of women don’t know they’re pregnant until around six weeks.

“[O]ne in five of our troops are women,” Austin told Tuberville. “And they don’t get a chance to choose where they’re stationed, so almost 80,000 of our women are stationed in places where they don’t have access to non-covered reproductive healthcare. I heard from the troops, I heard from our senior leaders, I heard from our chiefs, and I heard from our secretaries and this policy is based on a strong legal ground.

The Defense Department is ready to respond to the challenge of recruiting and abortion access: An example of Austin’s implosion to protect the freedom of service women

A recent study from RAND Corporation found that Dobbs could increase attrition, decrease readiness and harm military recruiting. The Pentagon just had its worst recruiting year since the Vietnam War.

Three policies were announced by the Pentagon to address these challenges. If reproductive care is unavailable at the station, travel allowances and absences for service women are allowed. This matters because service members may not be able to travel for certain procedures, which is why the Pentagon covers other procedures that aren’t in their area.

For example, the Pentagon is now considering whether to move the US Space Command from Colorado, which protects abortion access, to Alabama, which criminalizes it. Some of the factors considered by the Pentagon when it makes bases decisions include number of available parking spaces, housing affordability and area construction costs.

What is not on the list? Doctors who perform abortions can be imprisoned by the state, and residents of the state can be bounty hunters against women.

After nine months, it can be difficult to feel powerless because of all the different states targeting the right to choose. But here is one specific way that Biden can hold the line, strengthen our readiness and defend the freedom of service women who spend every day defending ours.

Lloyd Austin implored Tommy Tuberville to support the department’s officer nominations, despite Tuberville threatening to block them until Austin reversed his policies supporting service members seeking abortions.

Austin said that not approving the recommendation for promotion makes us far less ready than we need to be.

Tuberville has said he would hold up Defense Department nominations for flag and general officers until Austin “rescinds or suspends” the new policies, which largely focus on providing support for service members who have to travel out of state for care – including abortions and other non-covered reproductive health care like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI).

“The effects are cumulative, and it will effect families,” Austin added of the delay, “it will effect kids going to schools because they won’t be able to change their duty station, and so it’s a powerful effect and will impact on our readiness.”

The hearing was tense from the beginning and included an exchange between Austin and Tuberville. The Pentagon notification of the activity in Syria last week led to the attack on a facility housing US personnel and ultimately the death of an American contractor.

A suspected Iranian drone hit the coalition maintenance facility at 1:38 p.m. local time in Syria on March 23, which is 6:38 a.m. eastern time, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said last week.

Retaliatory strikes from the US were authorized by President Joe Biden later that day, and carried out on facilities associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at 7:40 p.m. eastern time.

Lawmakers have said that they were notified about the original attack and the US response that evening with congressional aides telling CNN the notification was communicated around the time of the retaliatory US strike.

Austin said the department informed Congress of both instances simultaneously because of a brief period of time between the attack and the strike. Austin agreed that the Pentagon should have notified him earlier and that they would do everything in their power to improve their performance.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said that time was compressed when the administration notified Congress.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, however, pushed Austin further on the notification timeline, alleging that Austin and his office purposefully delayed the notification because senators were voting on an amendment at the same time that pertained to Iran in Syria. The amendment, which was ultimately rejected by the Senate, would have halted the repeal of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force until Biden could certify that Iran was no longer funding or arming groups in Iraq and Syria.

“The chairman and I were testifying that morning as well, so as soon as we came out of testimony we began working on crafting response options,” Austin told Cotton.