Rep. Roy, 40 House Republicans demand DoD rescind abortion slush fund

On Wednesday, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) led 40 of his House Republican colleagues in demanding Biden’s Department of Defense immediately rescind its directive to create a new abortion travel fund for service members and their families.

Last week, DoD released a memo announcing their plans to direct American taxpayer dollars to this fund – an unprecedented politicization of the armed forces.

“Your decision to bypass Congress and establish a DoD abortion travel fund flies in the face of nearly a half-century of bipartisan consensus to respect the sincere beliefs of millions of pro-life Americans by restraining the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions,” the members wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

“It is even more disgraceful that you are using our brave service members and their families – tasked with providing for our nation’s security – as the vehicle to push this extreme policy on the American public,” the legislators added.

Rep. Roy said:

The United States military is facing a historic recruiting crisis as a result of wokeness and its strategically foolish COVID shot mandate. The Biden administration’s response is to kill more unborn Americans.

By creating an abortion travel slush fund with hard-earned taxpayer dollars, the Biden Administration is outright mocking the majority of Americans who oppose their tax dollars being used to end life in the womb.

Secretary Austin must immediately rescind this directive; it's as abhorrent as it is unconscionable. And any Republican who votes to fund or authorize this in December should be asked one simple question: why?

Full text of the letter can be found below and at the link here.

Dear Secretary Austin, 

We write to express our opposition to the recent Department of Defense (DoD) directive included in the memorandum entitled “Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care” dated October 20, 2022. Among several policy changes, this memo directs the unprecedented use of American taxpayer dollars to facilitate abortions for service members and their families, against the wishes of the American people from all walks of life. 

This memo asserts that the Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has impacted the readiness, recruiting, and retention of the Force. Therefore, it directs the DoD to establish “travel and transportation allowances for service members and their dependents” to “facilitate official travel to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member’s permanent duty station.” This move represents an unprecedented politicization of our Armed Forces, which has unfortunately been a hallmark of the Biden Administration from the start.

Your decision to bypass Congress and establish a DoD abortion travel fund flies in the face of nearly a half-century of bipartisan consensus to respect the sincere beliefs of millions of pro-life Americans by restraining the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions. It is even more disgraceful that you are using our brave service members and their families – tasked with providing for our nation’s security – as the vehicle to push this extreme policy on the American public. This obvious political gamesmanship will only serve to further undermine Americans’ trust in the U.S. Armed Forces and further hamstring future military recruitment efforts.

We demand the immediate rescission of this unconscionable directive. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Chip Roy

Member of Congress

Jeff Duncan

Member of Congress

Dan Bishop

Member of Congress

Michael Cloud

Member of Congress

Tim Burchett

Member of Congress

Bob Good

Member of Congress

Mary E. Miller

Member of Congress

Jake Ellzey

Member of Congress

Randy K. Weber

Member of Congress

Vicky Hartzler

Member of Congress

Warren Davidson

Member of Congress

Kevin Hern

Member of Congress

Louie Gohmert

Member of Congress

Lauren Boebert

Member of Congress

Clay Higgins

Member of Congress

Roger Williams

Member of Congress

Diana Harshbarger

Member of Congress

Doug Lamborn

Member of Congress

Jim Banks

Member of Congress

Mike Johnson

Member of Congress

W. Gregrory Steube

Member of Congress

Gus M. Bilirakis

Member of Congress

Ben Cline

Member of Congress

Elise M. Stefanik

Member of Congress

Burgess Owens

Member of Congress

Bruce Westerman

Member of Congress

Andy Biggs

Member of Congress

Ronny L. Jackson, M.D.

Member of Congress

Michael Waltz

Member of Congress

Brad Finstad

Member of Congress

Ralph Norman

Member of Congress

Barry Moore

Member of Congress

Ann Wagner

Member of Congress

Michael Guest

Member of Congress

Debbie Lesko

Member of Congress

Jack Bergman

Member of Congress

John R. Moonelaar

Member of Congress

Bill Posey

Member of Congress

Brian Mast

Member of Congress

Mark E. Green

Member of Congress

Scott Franklin

Member of Congress