On the recordJune 20, 2023
Mr. President, this week marks the 1-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. This disastrous decision has sown chaos and confusion across the country and led to dozens of States restricting or banning abortion care. Republicans are obsessed with banning abortion nationwide, and they are using every vehicle possible to advance their radical anti-abortion agenda. Tomorrow, my colleagues and I on the Armed Services Committee will begin our markup of the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is an annual bill that sets our Nation's defense policy. Despite our differences, Congress has come together to pass an NDAA on a bipartisan basis every year for the last 62 years. While Republicans and Democrats may disagree about military policy, we have always kept the readiness of our forces above politics. From combating threats abroad to rebuilding DOD infrastructure at home, we have no shortage of important issues to work through in this year's bill, but right now my Republican colleagues are threatening to derail the bill by injecting anti-abortion provisions into a bill that has nothing to do with abortion. After the Supreme Court's disastrous Dobbs decision, the Department of Defense clarified their travel policy to enable servicemembers stationed in States with abortion restrictions to travel in order to receive reproductive care.…





