USA Today: “Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s R-Ala., months-long blockade on military promotions over a Pentagon abortion policy, calling her fellow Republican’s protest a “mistake” and accusing him of harming military families.
“We don’t need to be using military families as political pawns. That’s a mistake. The military members and families, they sacrifice enough, they don’t need to be a pawn in Congress,” Haley, a military spouse herself, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Tuberville has single-handedly put on pause over 300 military nominations and promotions in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy that reimburses service members for out-of-state travel costs to receive abortions. Tuberville has argued the policy violates the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding from being used to pay for most abortions, even though the policy only pays for travel and not the procedure itself.
Haley, a presidential candidate in the 2024 Republican primary race, noted she disagrees with the policy and said the “Department of Defense started this.””