The Pentagon announced "Efforts to Ensure Access to Reproductive Health Care" on Thursday and, within their announcement are some eyebrow-raising plans for future programs that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced would be undertaken "as soon as possible to ensure that Service members and their families can access reproductive health care and health care providers can operate effectively."
According to the Department of Defense, they will "[d]evelop a program to reimburse applicable fees, as appropriate and consistent with applicable federal law, for Department of Defense health care providers who wish to become licensed in a different state than that in which they are currently licensed in order to support the performance of official duties."
They will also "[d]evelop a program to support Department of Defense health care providers who are subject to adverse action, including civil or criminal penalties or loss of license or reprimand, for appropriately performing their official duties, to include the indemnification of any verdict, judgment, or other monetary award consistent with applicable law."
So, what reasons would a DoD health care provider need to become licensed in a new state in order to perform "official duties" unless they were providing "healthcare" that is now illegal in several states where lawmakers chose to protect the lives of the unborn.
And why would a DoD health care provider be subject to adverse action — such as a loss of their license, criminal penalties, a court verdict, or a monetary penalty — for carrying out their "official duties" unless they were providing abortions in a manner that the jurisdiction's lawmakers had made illegal to protect the unborn.
Confirming that the Pentagon's motivation is to promote abortion at taxpayer expense, Secretary Austin also directed the Department of Defense to "[e]stablish travel and transportation allowances for Service members and their dependents, as appropriate and consistent with applicable federal law and operational requirements, and as necessary amend any applicable travel regulations, to facilitate official travel to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member's permanent duty station."
Translating the sanitized government-speak utilized in the Pentagon's announcement leaves Americans with a simple conclusion. If you're a DoD health care provider licensed in a state where abortion is now illegal, the Pentagon — with taxpayer funds — will pay for you to become licensed in a state where abortions are still allowed. And, if you're a DoD health care provider in a state where abortion is illegal but you run afoul of the law in some way, the Pentagon — again, with taxpayer funds — will defend you from or compensate you for adverse actions.
For service members and their dependents in jurisdictions where abortion is illegal, the DoD will also provide — from taxpayers — funds for official travel to a state where abortion is legal.
Secretary Austin's announcement on Thursday smacks of a similar announcement from another abortion henchman of the Biden-Harris administration: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. As Katie reported in June, "Becerra admitted the agency is using taxpayer money to help women obtain abortions in states where the procedure is still legal. When asked by the moderator if his actions were against the law, he laughed and avoided answering the question because the event was 'being recorded.'"
If the practice of Biden's HHS using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion "tourism" wasn't legal enough for Becerra to talk about while being recorded, it's just as problematic for the DoD to do the same — and more — at the direction of Secretary Austin.
And, on a higher level and through different means, the Department of Defense is attempting to remove barriers for DoD health care providers in states like Indiana or Oklahoma to move to states like California and New York to continue carrying out abortions. At the same time, and even more egregiously, the DoD is also going to back up their health care providers carrying out abortions in states where they may end up in civil or criminal legal trouble, lose their medical license, or face monetary penalties.
Secretary Austin's focus on turning the Department of Defense into the Department of Death for the unborn will also include updates to military health system websites to provide more information on how to access abortion services and "clarify the types of medical care that are available through the Military Health System following any abortion, regardless of whether it is performed, or paid for, by the Department of Defense at a military medical treatment facility or by a TRICARE authorized provider."
Senator Marco Rubio's office responded to the DoD announcement saying that "taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for or facilitate the taking of innocent human life" and pledging that "Senator Rubio will introduce legislation to stop Biden’s DOD from doing this nonsense."
Perhaps the Department of Defense would be better served by a secretary who is focused on meeting the recruitment, retention, and readiness goals that the Pentagon has been missing of late, and not on figuring out how to use taxpayer dollars to push abortion as some sort of supposedly noble crusade. Much like the large corporations providing financial assistance for employees and beneficiaries to travel out of state to get abortions — such a benefit is cheaper for the company than the employee time lost to maternity/paternity leave and childcare — Secretary Austin is seemingly trying to keep service members from what he seems to see as a "distraction" — again, talking about babies here — for the U.S. military.
In this otherwise tragic development, the irony should not be lost that the same Department of Defense which mandated COVID vaccines and booted those who chose not to comply would, at the same time, incentivize and promote what Democrats' falsely characterize as a "right to choose."
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