Tuberville In the News: Yellowhammer: Tuberville: Biden’s politicization of the VA is ‘an absolute disgrace’

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is condemning President Joe Biden for using veterans to push his administration’s progressive agenda.

Earlier this year, Tuberville introduced the VA Abortion Transparency Act to impose new abortion reporting requirements on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create more transparency for taxpayers.

“Congress has spoken,” Tuberville said in a statement. “The Veterans Health Care Act of 1992 clearly prohibits the VA from providing abortion services of any kind. For the Biden administration to twist the law into something other than what Congress intended and force the cost on the taxpayer is a disgrace. Our veterans deserve a VA that is 100% focused on ensuring they receive timely and quality care, not on implementing Joe Biden’s abortion-on-demand agenda. I am proud to introduce this bill that provides much needed transparency for taxpayers and holds the VA accountable.”

The senator, who sits on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, put the bill forward in response to the announcement in 2022 that the VA would begin facilitating abortions for veterans and their dependents through the taxpayer-funded VA health care system.

Tuberville once again criticized the policy Tuesday in an op-ed for the National Review.

“The VA is one of few agencies in the federal government that has largely stayed above the political fray. Even during times of political upheaval, the U.S. has continued its tradition of prioritizing care for the men and women who have sacrificed for our country,” Tuberville wrote. “Unfortunately, President Biden’s VA has lost sight of its core mission. Veterans, many of whom experience notoriously long wait times to receive care through the VA, now grapple with an administration that prioritizes a progressive agenda over their benefits.”

Tuberville said the Biden administration is pushing this new abortion policy in violation of the law.

“Two years ago, President Biden’s VA announced it would begin facilitating taxpayer-funded abortions at VA medical centers and through community-care providers in direct violation of a 1992 law that explicitly prohibits the VA from doing so,” Tuberville argued. “While members of Congress have submitted numerous inquiries seeking data surrounding the implementation of the new policy, the VA has refused to answer basic questions such as the number of abortions facilitated through the VA, the methods through which the abortions are being conducted, the number of gestational weeks at which point the abortions are occurring, or even how much this new policy is costing the American people.”

He also accused Biden of putting partisan politics of the well-being of American veterans.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time the VA has prioritized Joe Biden’s woke agenda over providing timely and quality care to veterans…This is an absolute disgrace — and a slap in the face to our veterans who deserve the best care our country has to offer,” he said. “Sadly, this decision from the VA is just one of many in which veterans are not put first under President Biden.”