Pentagon ends Biden policy that funded travel for abortions

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 31, 2025 / 15:55 pm (CNA).

Pentagon officials have rescinded a Biden administration-era policy that granted paid leave and reimbursed travel expenses for military service members based in states where abortion is restricted. 

Officials at the Defense Travel Management Office announced the move to “Remove Travel for Non-Covered Reproductive Health Care Services” in a memo on Wednesday following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, “Enforcing the Hyde Amendment,” last week. 

Passed in 1976, the Hyde Amendment bars federal funding for abortion. 

“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” Trump’s order affirms. 

The Biden administration established travel stipends and paid leave for service members in 2023. At the time, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated in a memo that the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade had “impacted access to reproductive health care with readiness, recruiting, and retention implications for the force.”

In response, pro-life Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville launched what turned into a 10-month-long standoff in which he attempted to pressure the administration to rescind the policy.

“For the past two years, I have been sounding the alarm about the Pentagon’s illegal and immoral practice of using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions,” Tuberville said in a statement posted on social media in response to the change.

“I took a lot of heat when I stood alone for nearly a year in holding senior Pentagon promotions over this,” he stated, “but as of today, it was all worth it.”

Tuberville had blocked the promotions of several hundred senior military officials to force the Defense Department to end its policy of paying for service members’ abortion travel. 

The Alabama senator’s pro-life blockade lasted from February 2023 to December 2023, causing a backlog of over 400 appointments, and was ultimately unsuccessful. 

In light of the change, and of Trump’s executive order, Tuberville expressed gratitude that “the Pentagon will once again be focused on lethality, not pushing a political agenda.”