Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) defended Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) hold on military promotions and confirmations in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy, vowing to eliminate those rules if elected president.
“What the Defense Department is doing is outside the law. They are breaking, violating the law by funding abortion tourism with tax dollars,” DeSantis during the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual fall banquet on Saturday. “I can tell you when I’m president on day one, that policy goes into the trash can where it belongs.”
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Tuberville has been holding up confirmations on key military appointments for more than six months in protest of a new Pentagon policy that reimburses military members who have to travel across state lines to receive reproductive healthcare, including access to abortions. The Alabama Republican has delayed hundreds of promotions across the military, prompting criticism from some members of his own party.
DeSantis is one of a handful of presidential hopefuls who have offered support to Tuberville amid the high-profile standoff. Former Vice President Mike Pence has also defended the move, saying earlier this month the conflict could “all be over tomorrow” if the Pentagon stopped “undermining state pro-life laws.”
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However, other candidates such as Nikki Haley have denounced the move, arguing lawmakers should not use military families as “political pawns.”
DeSantis’s comments came during the fall banquet for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, an annual event where Republican candidates seek to court evangelical voters in the key battleground state. Several GOP candidates were present for the event, including DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and former Rep. Will Hurd. Notably absent was former President Donald Trump.
