On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks acknowledged that by implementing its abortion travel policy, “The Pentagon made a policy choice. It’s based on a set of philosophies.” But argued that Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) holding promotions until the policy is changed or codified by Congress is messing with the way the military “does its business for an ideological culture war issue.”
Brooks stated, “[H]aving the Pentagon pay for people to travel for abortion, that’s a policy choice. The Pentagon made a policy choice. It’s based on a set of philosophies. And some of the Republicans have a different philosophy, and so, they can try to vote it down. And that’s fine. That’s — to me, that’s the democratic process.”
He continued, “The terrible thing that’s happening is Sen. Tuberville is blocking promotions until he gets his abortion policy…and that just weakens the military. It’s fine to have a debate. It’s fine to have amendments. It’s fine to have a policy process. It’s not fine to weaken our military because of your philosophy. … You ruin a society if you don’t respect the differences of the spheres. And the military does its own thing, by its own logic, by its own standards, and it should not have outsiders screwing up the way it does its business for an ideological culture war issue.”
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