By Steven Ertelt
Article Source

Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced that the Department of Defense will pay for all members of the military who want travel to kill their babies in abortions.

Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and actions by more than 20 states to protect babies from abortions, the Biden administration is following through on one of its many promises to promote killing more babies in abortions.

Austin released a memo today to all branches of the military to raise awareness of the new DOD program to fund abortion travel. he said the Dobbs decision to reverse Roe has “readiness, recruiting, and retention implications for the force,” the secretary wrote, calling for the military to “establish travel and transportation allowances for service members and dependents … to access non-covered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a service member’s permanent duty station.”

That’s a potentially discriminatory policy that puts a burden on pregnant service members to have abortions instead of giving birth — making it appear that keeping their baby instead of killing their baby adversely affects military readiness.

The policy would make it so America’s military is using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and costs associated with abortions, which also potentially violates federal law.

Current law in effect since 1996 prohibits the performance of elective abortions by Department of Defense medical personnel and medical facilities. The Hyde Amendment also prohibits taxpayer funding for abortions in the military, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest or risks to the mother’s life.

Austin directed the department to “establish additional privacy protections for reproductive health care information, including standardizing and extending the time Service members have to fulfill their obligation to notify commanders of a pregnancy to no later than 20 weeks unless specific requirements to report sooner,” which makes it so the military is promoting late-term abortions that could take place after viability.

The new policy prohibits DOD healthcare professionals from providing health information unless there is a specific exception, for commanders to “display objectivity and discretion,” and to help health care providers, specifically those who “are subject to adverse action, including civil or criminal penalties or loss of license or reprimand.”

Austin said the new policy came after reviewing “current policies and procedures to assess the impact of the Dobbs decision,” and the “Secretary often has made clear, nothing is more important than the health and well being of our people,” a U.S. defense official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

Pro-abortion Democrat lawmakers have been trying to require military base medical facilities to provide elective abortions for decades.

When former President Bill Clinton allowed abortions in military facilities from 1993 to 1996, military physicians, nurses and other medical workers refused to perform or assist in elective abortions. Before the current law went into effect, the Clinton administration attempted to hire civilians to do abortions on military bases.

Killing unborn babies in abortions is not health care, and military servicewomen do not need them. Most OB-GYNs do not provide abortions, and tens of thousands of doctors across the U.S. recognize that unborn babies are second patients in every pregnancy and their lives are valuable.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24, 16 states have begun enforcing laws that protect unborn babies from abortion, and more are battling lawsuits to defend legal protections for the unborn. SBA Pro-Life America estimates about 134,800 unborn babies are being saved from abortion as a result of the state pro-life laws currently in effect.