Biden threatens to veto GOP defense funding bill, citing attack on abortion access

Citing language restricting abortion access, President Joe Biden on Monday threatened to veto legislation to fund the Department of Defense currently under consideration by the House of Representatives.

The bill would fund the department for the 2024 fiscal year. In a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Biden administration expressed strong opposition to the bill’s passage in its current form.

In June 2022, the conservative-led U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization rescinded the federal right to an abortion as established by the decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a memo in October 2022 outlining steps that the Department of Defense would take to ensure continued access to abortion care for service members and their families.

Among the directives were instructions to department health care providers prohibiting disclosure of abortion care to unauthorized individuals, reaffirming the right of those providers to perform abortions, and mandating the development of programs that would reimburse fees and expenses associated with providing abortion care within the department.

The House bill would prohibit the department from using its budget to carry out Austin’s directives. The White House memo said the prohibition would “impede the ability of all servicemembers to serve to their fullest capacity.”

“Access to reproductive healthcare is critical to servicemembers and their families, and the Department’s ability to recruit, retain, and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force, of which nearly 20 percent are women,” the document says. “The Secretary of Defense’s October 20, 2022, memorandum titled Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care, and attendant policies were drafted and approved pursuant to a thoughtful and deliberate approach and are in full accordance with the law. Prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to implement these policies, as contemplated in section 8146, would, in effect, infringe on the Secretary of Defense’s lawful authorities to promote a resilient military.”

The White House also objected to language in the legislation that instructs the department to limit programs designed to promote diversity and protested proposed cuts to climate change programs and clean energy programs.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who sponsored the bill, defended its abortion restrictions.

“When the Department notified the Committee of many of their new policies, particularly its new abortion policy, I warned them that doing so would provoke a response from Congress. And here we are,” Calvert said in remarks before the House Appropriations Committee on June 22.

The Democratic-led Senate Committee on Appropriations approved legislation funding the department in a bipartisan 27-1 vote on July 27. That legislation did not include abortion restrictions.

The Republican push for abortion restrictions runs counter to public opinion on the issue. Since the Dobbs decision, support for abortion rights has increased in national polling. Efforts by Republicans to restrict abortion access have failed when put to the popular vote in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, and California.

Leading Republican presidential candidates former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott, and former Gov. Nikki Haley continue to support abortion restrictions.

Biden has called for the right to an abortion to be codified in federal law.

“Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose,” Biden said in his State of the Union address in February.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.