Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas was confronted on Fox News Sunday over his opposition to military abortions.
The U.S. House passed the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday mostly along party lines with four Democrats siding with Republicans to support the controversial amendments made by the GOP.
The must-pass bill sets funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) and its policy agenda. The legislation passed by a 219-210 vote, with only four Republicans voting against it. The bill included amendments tapping on hot-button issues such as abortion access and transgender care for military personnel.
Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream asked Cotton on Sunday about “women who are in uniform in a place where they cannot access abortion because they are there on orders, what should they do?”
Above, Senator. Tom Cotton (R-AR) speaks to reporters after he attended a closed-door briefing for Senators about the Chinese spy balloon at the U.S. Capitol February 9, 2023 in Washington, DC. Cotton was confronted on Fox News Sunday over his opposition to military abortions.
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In response, the GOP senator suggested that they can use their 30 days of annual leave, adding that the military shouldn’t pay for abortion.
“It shouldn’t be taxpayer funds, giving them three weeks of paid uncharged leave and then also paying for travel and lodging and meal something that we don’t even give our troops when they have a parent die or a sibling die, or beloved grandparent die,” he said.
During a voting session on NDAA amendments on Thursday, House Republicans passed an amendment that would block the Pentagon from reimbursing military personnel who have to travel out of state to undergo an abortion. Some GOP-led states have restrictions or a full ban on abortion enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, a 1973 landmark decision that protected women’s federal right to an abortion.
Several months after the Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, the defense department announced changes to its healthcare policies which reimbursed service members and their dependents for any expenses incurred while traveling to receive an abortion. Military personnel can also request paid time off to receive reproductive healthcare.
TOM COTTON: The military should not be paying for abortion tourism
SHANNON BREAM: So what should women who are in uniform in a place where they cannot access an abortion because they are there on orders, what should they do?
COTTON: They have 30 days of annual leave pic.twitter.com/18UHQnmWx6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2023
Cotton argued that it’s an “insane” policy that President Joe Biden and defense secretary Lloyd Austin should rescind. He said that the military shouldn’t pay for abortion tourism.
Meanwhile, some House Republicans felt relief that the amendment to undo the defense department’s abortion care policy passed on Thursday. Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who backed the amendment, tweeted after the vote that it was “a GREAT DAY for our country.”
“My amendment to STOP Biden from using the DOD to pay for abortion travel PASSED,” Jackson wrote. “This policy is ILLEGAL, and soon, it will be GONE.”
However, some Democrats opposed the amendment, including Katherine Clark, Democratic whip and Massachusetts representative, who called the decision to “strip reproductive health care away from our service members” an example of “tyranny.”
“The MAGA majority is using our defense bill to get one stop closer to the only thing they really care about: a nationwide abortion ban,” Clark said.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek on Friday, Democratic Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington said that she voted against Republicans’ harmful amendments, but she voted in favor of the overall bill to honor the “obligation to protect our citizens, our borders, and our brave service members who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms.”
“As the legislation moves to the Senate and both chambers work towards compromise, I look forward to voting on a final version of the NDAA – one that fully funds our military and national defense while understanding that threats to our nation originate from our adversaries, not from a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own reproductive health or from LGBTQ+ Americans,” she said.
Newsweek reached out by email to Senator Tom Cotton’s media office for comment.
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