Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Wednesday the Biden administration’s use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions has nothing to do with the Dobbs decision or Roe v. Wade. The administration is using Dobbs as an excuse to allow Veterans Affairs-provided abortions, he said.
Tuberville (R-Auburn), who was joined at the news conference by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), laid out his case against the new policy, outlining three major reasons why he said the new policy is both wrong and illegal.
“Were going to stand up for this policy for three reasons,” he said. “Number one, it’s illegal. Congress banned abortion in the VA 30 years ago, and it was unanimous. One of the senators who voted for the bill was President Joe Biden.
“We have never repealed this law. Thirty years. We’ve never repealed it. Still on the books and the administration needs to follow the law.”
Tuberville also said the only way to legally change a law is through a vote by Congress.
“This administration doesn’t get to change the law just because they feel like it,” he said. “There’s got to be a vote here in this building.”
Taxpayers’ money going to VA-funded abortions was the next issue Tuberville raised.
“Number two, this is about taxpayer dollars,” he said. “The administration is spending money Congress has never authorized or appropriated. You know we’re supposed to appropriate the money spent and it has not gone through appropriation. There has been a bipartisan consensus for 40 years that we should not spend taxpayer dollars on abortion. Forty years. No taxpayer dollars.”
Lastly, Tuberville cited moral issues that could effect the medical work force of the VA, including a recent lawsuit from a nurse against the the department.
“Number three, this is an attack on doctors and nurses who have moral objections.” he said. “After the VA issued this rule, a nurse has already sued the VA for trying to participate in an abortion.
“In January the department effectively admitted that there were no moral protections in this new policy that they pushed forward. The department created an opt out from after this. Doctors and nurses had to fill out this form to defend their personal beliefs about doing abortions.”
Tuberville said the opt-out form has created a climate of fear among some of the VA medical staff.
“If that’s not enough, we’ve got a lot of Christian doctors and nurses across this country are now afraid that they are going to be fired from the VA because of opting out,” he said. “We do not need to eliminate good doctors and nurses from the VA. We’re having a tough enough problem as it is.
“We want to attract people to the VA, not run them off.”
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.
