Senate Republicans forcefully criticised their Alabama colleague, former college football coach Sen Tommy Tuberville for his blockade of military nominees in protest of the Pentagon’s policy on abortion.
Mr Tuberville has been blocking the confirmations of new military leaders citing his opposition to the Department of Defense policy of paying for troops needing abortions to travel out of state for reproductive health care services if they are stationed in areas where the procedures have become unavailable following the striking down of the Roe v Wade ruling by the Supreme Court in the summer of 2022.
The blockade has made a number of top-level officers perform several jobs concurrently.
GOP senators pushed on Wednesday night for the confirmation of more than 60 military nominees but Mr Tuberville refused to give in.
The effort was headed by Sen Dan Sullivan of Alaska and he was backed up by Sens Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Todd Young of Indiana, and Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee.
They each requested votes on every officer by unanimous consent, a process which took ours, but Mr Tuberville was there to block all of them.
“The Pentagon has issued a legal opinion I disagree with saying this doesn’t violate the Hyde Amendment. I disagree with it,” Mr Graham said before directly addressing Mr Tuberville.
“You just denied this lady a promotion,” he said, holding up an image of one of the military nominees. “All of us are ready to promote her because she deserves to be promoted. She had nothing to do with this policy. Let me say it again, everybody in this body could find an issue with any administration they don’t agree with.”
“What we’re gonna do is open up Pandora’s Box. Today is abortion policy. If we take back the White House, we’ll go back to the Mexico City policy limiting dollars to be given to overseas entities that are engaged in the abortion business, some pro-choice people don’t like that,” Mr Graham, a former member of the Air Force, added. “What would happen if they put a hold on all the officers because they don’t agree with the Republican administration? There’s a reason this has not been done this way for a couple hundred years … this is doing great damage to our military.”
“I’ve been trying to work with you for nine months,” Mr Graham told the Alabama senator.
“Folks, if this keeps going, people are going to leave,” he told the chamber.
“There [are] some people that are waiting to be promoted, that if they don’t get promoted soon, they’re gonna be out of the military,” Mr Graham noted. “How does that help anybody if they’re qualified?”
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