‘It’s the darn right thing to do’

WASHINGTON – National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday made an impassioned speech defending the Pentagon’s policies that pay for troops’ and their families’ travel expenses to receive reproductive care — including abortion and in-vitro fertilization.

“One in five members of the US military are women,” Kirby said. “We’re an all-volunteer force … When you sign up and when you make that contract, you have every right to expect that organization – in this case, the military – is going to take care of you, is going to take care of your family.”

“Whether it’s about female service members or female family members, being able to count on the kinds of healthcare – and reproductive care, specifically – that they need to serve, that is a foundational sacred obligation of military leaders across the river,” he added.

Continuing his four-minute diatribe, Kirby told reporters at the White House that denying women and female dependents access to abortion and other reproductive care risks military readiness by discouraging individuals who need such care from enlisting or remaining in the armed services.

“We want to keep the people that we get, [and] want to make sure that they can continue to serve,” he said. “So it can have an extremely, extremely significant impact on our recruiting and retention – not to mention it’s just the right darn thing to do for people who raise their hand and agreed to serve in the military.”

Service members have little choice over where they live, given that the military assigns troops to position in various locations – including in states that have severely restricted or outright banned abortion after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, Kirby said.

“You go where you’re told, that’s the way orders work. You’re assigned, you don’t get to choose,” Kirby said. “And so what happens if you get assigned to a state like Alabama, which has a pretty restrictive abortion law in place, and you’re concerned about your reproductive care? What do you do? Do you say no and get out? Well, some people may decide to do that.”

“And what does that mean? That means we lose talent,” he added.

The speech came as the Pentagon prepares to brief the Senate Armed Services Committee on its post-Roe policies later this week, according to Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

The briefing, which is expected to be closed to the public, will involve senior Pentagon policy officials as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) continues to block more than 275 military officer confirmations in protest of the DOD abortion policy, she said.

Tuberville’s protest, which has been going on since March, has caused the military to go without important leadership roles and blocked troops and their families from receiving promotions or moving on to new command posts.

Pressure has grown in recent weeks as the protest affected the office of the Marine Corps Commandant. As of last week, the service is without a top commander after former Commandant David H. Berger after retired on July 10.

While Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Eric Smith assumed Berger’s duties with the turnover, he cannot formally take over the role without the Senate confirming his nomination. Without confirmation, he is blocked from receiving benefits like personal security and barred from carrying out some official – and critical – duties, such as issuing a new strategic direction for the Corps.

That pressure is only expected to grow as Joint Chief of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley is set to retire this fall.

If Tuberville continues his boycott, the nation could be left without a confirmed top military officer before the end of the year.