During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called on President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to reconsider the Pentagon’s abortion.
Cotton’s colleague Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has put a hold on military promotions because of the issue, which the Biden administration and Democrats say is threatening national security.
However, Cotton says Democrats themselves are to blame.
“[T]he Secretary of Defense and the President thinks that this is a readiness issue, and they want to find the responsible party, they should look in the mirror,” Cotton said. “They’re the ones who are violating the law and using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion tourism. Just let me give an example of how extreme this policy is. A young airman at Little Rock Air Force Base could walk in and demand three weeks of uncharged paid leave and get travel and meals and lodging paid for to go get an elective abortion. Another airman could walk in and say my mother and my father just unexpectedly died. Can I have leave to go to their funeral? They would be charged leave that comes out of their annual allotment, and they will get no expenses paid. I think most Americans agree that that is an insane policy. Again, the arm — the military should not be paying for abortion tourism.”
The Arkansas Republican suggested the Pentagon revert to its pre-Roe v. Wade policy.
“[I] mean, does Senator Tuberville have enough pressure on him that he rethinks where he’s at?” host Shannon Bream asked.
“Well, again, if Lloyd Austin and Joe Biden think this is a threat to our national security, the simplest thing to do would be to revert to the same practices we had had for decades,” Cotton replied. “The same practice that we had last year after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and resend this unlawful policy on abortion tourism.”
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