Launching a new ad campaign, VoteVets, a progressive advocacy organization working for veterans’ causes, remains frustrated with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). Tuberville has been objecting to and blocking the nominations and promotions across hundreds of leadership posts in the military, leaving multiple branches without Senate-confirmed leaders in their highest roles. That includes the U.S. Army.
Tuberville is protesting a policy from the Defense Department to make travel support available for personnel seeking an abortion. The Pentagon’s support doesn’t directly fund any abortion. The backing the department made available has been cast as an issue of, among other factors, recruitment and retention, since issues in obtaining health care could push individuals away from military service. Across the country, Americans now face a patchwork of access to abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the national protections for the procedure available from their ruling in Roe v. Wade, allowing Republican state officials to impose new restrictions.
VoteVets says their new ad campaign is slated to air for two weeks across broadcast television in Alabama. It features a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from the state. “Stop sacrificing our national security for your political games,” the speaker says, addressing the Alabama Senator directly. “You’re hanging our military out to dry just like you did the players at Ole Miss. The military is not your political football. Just let our leaders lead.”
Elsewhere, the Senate also recently considered — and rejected — a proposed amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would have established new opportunities for ostensibly corrective action for ex-military personnel who were removed from duty over issues of non-compliance with the demands for vaccination against COVID-19. In debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) cast the dispute as involving whether military personnel would follow the lawful orders of their superior, something he described as foundational to the military’s operations and argued Cruz would circumvent with the proposal under review.
📺 In a TWO WEEK ad buy on Alabama broadcast TV, VoteVets is hitting @SenTuberville HARD:
“You’re hanging our military out to dry just like you did the players at Ole Miss.” pic.twitter.com/Gij9LiE8Ck
— VoteVets (@votevets) August 3, 2023
