U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), left, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin | Bacon.House.Gov / Defense.Gov
U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), left, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin | Bacon.House.Gov / Defense.Gov
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) could vote as early as next week on a defense bill amendment that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) from providing department employees with reimbursement for abortion-related expenses.
The amendment, proposed by U.S. Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-TX-13) and Chip Roy (R-TX-21), is in response to an October 2022 DoD memo, entitled, “Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care.”
Among other policies, the memo said that, “travel and transportation allowances may be authorized for Service members and dependents to travel to access non-covered reproductive health care.”
The Jackson-Roy amendment says “the Secretary of Defense has no legal authority to implement any policies in which funds are to be used for such purposes,” and that the DoD policy is “therefore unlawful and must be rescinded.”
The amendment references section 1093 of title 10 of US Code, which says the DoD may only use their funds for abortions in cases where the life of the mother is threatened or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) criticized the DoD policy in an April floor speech, saying, "One thing that does tend to unite Americans more than any other topic within the area of abortion is that we don't want the use of federal taxpayer dollars going to facilitate or fund abortions."
Congress will vote on whether or not to apply the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, “would authorize appropriations totaling $875.4 billion” for the 2024 defense budget,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.
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