During an interview with CNN aired on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Situation Room,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that the Department of Defense’s policy is to pay for travel for DOD employees to travel to other states to obtain abortions, but claimed that the Pentagon doesn’t have “an abortion policy.” Rather, the Defense Department has “an access to non-covered reproductive health care policy.”
Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “So, the bottom line is the Pentagon will continue to pay for travel, for example, for women to go to other states if necessary to get an abortion?”
Austin answered, “That’s our policy, Wolf.”
Blitzer then asked, “And that will continue?”
Austin responded, “To get non-covered reproductive health care. I don’t have an abortion policy. I have an access to non-covered reproductive health care policy.”
Austin also stated that he will reach out to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and speak to him for the first time since the end of March about the Senator’s hold on defense nominees over the policy, and that his message to Tuberville will be that “He needs to lift the holds, Wolf. This is a national security issue. It’s a readiness issue.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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