Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been holding up military nominations since last March, not over principled opposition to the Biden Administration’s war policies but over abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Tuberville is trying to stop the Pentagon policy of offering leave and benefits to any woman in the military who wants an abortion but happens to be assigned to a military base in a state that has outlawed abortion. As a result, some 275 general officer nominations are now blocked, including for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs as well as the chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Tuberville has come under enormous pressure to lift his hold but has so far not budged. He and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin even had a ‘cordial’ phone conversation on July 18 but failed to come to an agreement. Pentagon officials went up to the next day to brief senators on the cascading impacts of Tuberville’s hold, but Tuberville, himself, remained unmoved.
