U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is spiking the football after the Pentagon’s reversal of its policy allowing taxpayer-funded travel for abortion services, a policy he spent nearly a year blocking military promotions over.
In a statement, Tuberville celebrated the decision, saying it justified his fight against the policy, which included his controversial hold on hundreds of military promotions in 2023.
“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 declared. “I took a lot of heat when I stood alone for nearly a year in holding senior Pentagon promotions over this—but as of today, it was all worth it.”
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He went on to praise President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for bringing what he called ‘common sense’ back to the Pentagon.
“The Biden administration treated taxpayers like their own personal piggy bank that they could use to bankroll their woke agenda,” Tuberville continued. “Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership, the Pentagon will once again be focused on lethality, not pushing a political agenda.”
The Pentagon’s now-reversed abortion travel policy was originally introduced by the Biden administration in 2022 following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade. The policy allowed service members and their dependents to travel across state lines for abortion services at taxpayer expense in states where the procedure remained legal.
Tuberville fiercely opposed the measure, arguing that it violated the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk.
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To force the Pentagon to reverse course, Tuberville imposed a hold on all senior military promotions for nearly 11 months in 2023, creating a bottleneck that left key leadership positions unfilled. The move drew sharp criticism from military officials, bipartisan members of Congress, and even some within his own party, who argued that the blockade was harming military readiness.
Facing growing pressure from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who threatened to change Senate rules to bypass his blockade, Tuberville eventually relented in December 2023, allowing most promotions to proceed while maintaining his opposition to the policy.
With the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy now officially revoked, Tuberville sees this as a major victory in his broader effort to reshape military policy.
For now, Tuberville is claiming the win, thanking Trump and Hegseth for their leadership, and signaling that his fight against “woke” policies in the military is far from over.
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