House passes anti-woke amendments to defense bill that would end payments for abortion excursions, defund sex-change programs

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a host of amendments to the $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act Thursday that will kneecap wokeness in the Pentagon and spare the military from subsidizing leftist initiatives.

Democrats have indicated that they cannot support the resultant version of the defense bill and will hold America's defense ransom unless Republicans capitulate, allowing the military to continue footing the bill for abortion excursions and sex-change mutilation while promoting woke propaganda on its bases.

The amendments

Republicans managed to successfully pass numerous anti-woke amendments, which one senior House Democrat told Axios "will poison America's national defense capabilities by stalling the NDAA."

No more sex-change money

Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana saw his amendment to end the military's sex-change mutilation program pass in a 221-211 vote.

Should the NDAA pass with Rosendale's amendment intact, the Department of Defense and its health program TRICARE would be barred from covering and "furnishing sex reassignment surgeries and gender hormone treatments for transgender individuals."

Rep. Ralph Norman's amendment prohibiting the provision of gender transition procedures, including surgery or medication, through the Exceptional Family Member Program also passed in a 222-210 vote.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus explained to reporters why the expenditure on sex-change mutilations and hormone treatments is detrimental to the U.S. armed forces as well as how it detracts from "readiness and lethality":

No more abortion travel money

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson (Texas) saw his amendment, which had over 70 cosponsors, pass in a 221-213 vote. Two Republicans voted against the amendment, and one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), voted in favor.

The amendment would prohibit the payment and reimbursement by the Pentagon of expenses relating to abortion services.

Jackson noted in a statement that following an Oct. 22, 2022, memo from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the DOD "can and will reimburse travel expense for servicemembers and their dependents who travel, specifically, to obtain an abortion in another state. DOD will also reimburse any associated feeds for healthcare professionals seeking to be licensed in another state for purposes of performing abortions - all on the taxpayer's dime!"

"Taxpayer funding of travel for an abortion is in fact taxpayer-funded abortion," said Jackson, adding that the DOD is therefore "carrying out an illegal policy that is divisive, immoral, and does nothing to provide for our national security."

No more DEI, no DEI czars

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) successfully advanced in a 217-212 vote an amendment that would prohibit federal funds from being "obligated or expended" to establish a chief diversity officer position or a senior adviser for diversity and inclusion position within the DOD.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tried to go one step farther and ban federal funds for training on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but that amendment failed.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told Axios that "to say we should defund ALL diversity training isn't smart."

No woke agitprop in military schools

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert's amendment barring DOD Education Activity Schools from buying and having "pornographic and radical gender ideology books in the library" passed.

Roy also successfully passed an amendment barring the DOD Education Activity from promoting various identitarian ideas often associated with critical race theory, including the notions that:

• "Any race is inherently superior or inferior to any other race, color, or national origin";
• The "US is a fundamentally racist country";
• The Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution are racist documents";
• "An individual's moral character or worth is determined by the individual's race, color, or national origin"; and
• "An individual, by virtue of the individual's race, is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."

Leftist apoplexy

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Rules Committee, called the Republican amendments "radical," adding "the clowns have taken over the circus."

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), on the House Armed Services Committee, suggested that the amendments, including those scrapping payouts for abortion excursions and genital mutilations, amounted to a hijacking of national security by the "far right."

"This makes our country less secure, less safe, and it's an insult to all of our women in uniform," said Ryan. "So I'm a no, and I think almost all my Democratic colleagues will be a no."

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement Thursday, saying, "Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people."

Further calling House Freedom Caucus efforts to depoliticize the military "an extreme and reckless legislative joyride," the Democrats suggested the NDAA now "undermines a woman’s freedom to seek abortion care, targets the rights of LGBTQ+ servicemembers and bans books that should otherwise be available to military families."

The Democrats vowed to vote no on the final passage of the bill.

Aguilar suggested that this would set a personal precedent, noting, "I don't think I've not voted for an NDAA."

Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, on the other hand, noted that while never before voting in favor of the NDAA, he may reconsider this time, saying, "Everything up here is a crap sandwich. And this one's got some bread on it," reported The Hill.

Rep. Roy dismissed his Democratic colleague's fuss over the amendments, saying, "It’s always funny to listen to my Democrat colleagues say that we’re politicizing this somehow by injecting cultural issues, as if they’re not driving the train on cultural issues over at [the Department of Defense] as we speak."

House Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested that the Democrats were the ones "becoming so extreme."

Concerning the amendments tossing DEI initiatives, McCarthy asked, "Do they want Disneyland to train our military, or do they want a military that can defend the nation?"

As for Democrats' promise to hold up the bill, McCarthy said, "It’ll really show America that the Democrats are so extreme that they won’t defend the military."

Even if House Democrats prove unable to prevent the bill's ultimate passage, the Democrat-controlled Senate and President Biden will likely jump in to preserve the woke initiatives.

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