Tommy Tuberville, the football coach turned politician now serving as the senior U.S. senator from Alabama, is refusing to compromise his most dearly held beliefs: that abortion is murder and that American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for it.
On Tuesday, he blocked the confirmation of General Eric Smith to become the commandant of the Marine Corps. Smith presently is holding that position in an acting capacity, waiting for Senate confirmation.
The Senate could, by voice vote, confirm Smith. But the upper body prefers to approve military promotions all at once rather than one at a time.
At issue is Biden’s policy in reaction to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision returning the issue of abortion to the states. Instead of supporting the decision, the Biden administration announced a policy change stating military members seeking an abortion who live in states that prohibit it may seek a refund of travel expenses for travel to states that still allow abortion.
According to LifeNews, that means an estimated 4,100 babies could be aborted this year thanks to the policy.
Tuberville is standing firm on the issue:
I’m not going to change my approach.
I’ve told them all along where we stood.…
I’m not changing my mind. I’ve had zero conversations with the White House, 10 minutes with [the Secretary of Defense]. And hopefully we get more conversations in the future, but I’m not changing my mind.
On Thursday, Joe Biden called Tuberville’s position “ridiculous” and “bizarre,” adding that “the idea that we don’t have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the idea that we have all these promotions that are in abeyance right now … we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Biden is referring to General Charles Q. Brown, his choice to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose confirmation will likely be delayed thanks to Tuberville’s unyielding stance.
When a reporter asked Biden if he would be willing to talk with Tuberville directly about the issue, he said he would, but only “if there’s any possibility of changing this ridiculous position that is jeopardizing U.S. security.”
Tuberville responded: “It doesn’t sound like anybody who wants to sit down and visit and work a problem out. It sounds like somebody who wants to argue about it. I’m not in this to argue. I’m just in this to try to be fair and do what’s right.”
What’s right, according to Tuberville, is that Biden’s policy change violates Title 10, Section 1093 of the U.S. Code: “Funds available to the Department of Defense may not be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term, or in a case in which the pregnancy is the result of an act or rape or incest.”
Support for Tuberville is scant. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters back in May that he doesn’t support putting holds on promotions. And a spokesman for McConnell declined to comment.
But Tuberville did get a nice letter from The Heritage Foundation:
The Heritage Foundation stands united in our support of your strong stance in opposition to new Department of Defense policies relating to abortion.
The new DoD policies are illegal, immoral, and further erode American’s trust in the capability of the U.S. Armed Forces to fulfill its mission.
Tuberville’s voting record vis-à-vis the Constitution, which he took an oath to support and defend, earned him an 83 out of 100 in The new American’s Freedom Index. On the other hand, McConnell, the leading Republican in the Senate, comes in at disappointing 57 out of 100.
