{"id":1712721,"date":"2022-10-27T06:30:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1712721"},"modified":"2022-10-27T06:35:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T10:35:10","slug":"lol-dod-blames-recruitment-problems-on-lack-of-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lol-dod-blames-recruitment-problems-on-lack-of-abortions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lol: DoD Blames Recruitment Problems on Lack of Abortions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flol-dod-blames-recruitment-problems-on-lack-of-abortions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1712721&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/A-female-member-of-the-U.S.-army-preparing-for-front-line-deployment.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Defense seems to be using the Supreme Court\u2019s overruling of <em>Roe v. Wade <\/em>as an excuse to promote the Biden administration\u2019s abortion agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin\u2019s Oct. 20, 2022, memorandum, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2022\/Oct\/20\/2003099747\/-1\/-1\/1\/MEMORANDUM-ENSURING-ACCESS-TO-REPRODUCTIVE-HEALTH-CARE.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care<\/a>,\u201d cites <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar_case?case=10996775398954026979&#038;q=Dobbs+v+jackson+women%27s+health&#038;hl=en&#038;as_sdt=6,45\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>in directing the services to provide time off from duty and travel expenses for service members and dependents seeking abortions that are not available at their military medical treatment facility or the adjacent civilian community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Mischaracterizing <em>Dobbs<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>The first sentence of the memo claims, \u201cthe ruling in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> has impacted access to reproductive health care with readiness, recruiting, and retention implications for the Force.\u201d This is an astounding claim, unsupported by facts, details, or supporting data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Dobbs, <\/em>which returned abortion regulation to the states, did change the regulatory landscape of the abortion industry. But the Department of Defense has not changed its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/News-Stories\/Article\/Article\/3110807\/womens-health-care-in-dod-unchanged-by-supreme-court-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">policy<\/a> of providing abortions in military medical treatment facilities where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest or the life of the mother was in danger.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After <em>Dobbs,<\/em> a service member\u2019s access to off-post abortion services will vary based on their duty location. Some states, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/states.guttmacher.org\/policies\/california\/abortion-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">California<\/a>, have permissive abortion laws. Others, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/states.guttmacher.org\/policies\/oklahoma\/abortion-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Oklahoma<\/a>, ban virtually all abortions. But Austin\u2019s claim that <em>Dobbs <\/em>adversely affected \u201creproductive health care\u201d other than abortion seriously mischaracterizes the holding in <em>Dobbs.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>First, <em>Dobbs<\/em> held that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion. <em>Dobbs<\/em> did not address, much less restrict, hinder, or otherwise regulate \u201creproductive health care\u201d apart from abortion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Second, after mischaracterizing the scope of <em>Dobbs<\/em>, the memo claims the decision has adverse implications for readiness, recruiting, and retention. Again, the memo provides no data, evidence, or details to support this astonishing claim.<\/p>\n<p>The effect of <em>Dobbs <\/em>returning abortion regulation to the states means service members and their dependents stationed in some states will have to travel to more permissive states to secure an abortion. That could affect some service members seeking to end the lives of their unborn children, but does it really affect readiness, recruiting, and retention, as Austin asserts?<\/p>\n<h2><em>Dobbs <\/em>Did Not Affect Recruiting<\/h2>\n<p>Not according to an exhaustive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2022\/07\/18\/numbers-game-inside-the-armys-end-strength-scramble\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Army Times study<\/a> analyzing the Army\u2019s dismal recruiting efforts in 2022. The Army failed to meet its 2022 recruitment goals primarily because of economic factors, the general lack of fitness of American youth (only 23 percent meet the medical fitness standards), the effects of the pandemic, and Covid vaccination policies.<\/p>\n<p>The timeline of events also discredits Austin\u2019s claims. The Army Times<em> <\/em>analysis quoted the senior enlisted leader at Training &#038; Doctrine Command, CSM Daniel Hendrex, who said it was known by January 2022 that the recruiting mission was \u201cfacing difficult headwinds.\u201d That\u2019s when the service started increasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2022\/01\/12\/army-offers-recruits-up-to-50k-bonus-as-pandemic-takes-toll\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recruitment bonuses<\/a> across the board.<\/p>\n<p>A draft of the <em>Dobbs<\/em> decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/02\/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leaked on May 2<\/a>, and the final opinion was released on June 24, 2022, six months after the Army was well aware of the recruiting crisis. Furthermore, neither the secretary of the Army nor the senior uniformed leadership responsible for recruitment mentioned lack of access to abortion services as a detriment to recruitment when they presented their FY 2023 budget proposals to Congress in April 2022. Nor did they mention that a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/21\/with-drag-shows-and-genderfluid-internships-its-no-wonder-military-recruiting-is-down\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=with-drag-shows-and-genderfluid-internships-its-no-wonder-military-recruiting-is-down&#038;utm_term=2022-10-22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plethora of woke social poli<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/21\/with-drag-shows-and-genderfluid-internships-its-no-wonder-military-recruiting-is-down\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=with-drag-shows-and-genderfluid-internships-its-no-wonder-military-recruiting-is-down&#038;utm_term=2022-10-22\">cies<\/a> probably is far more responsible for discouraging potential enlistees than abortion being returned to the states.<\/p>\n<h2><em>Dobbs <\/em>Did Not Affect Retention<\/h2>\n<p><em>Dobbs<\/em> has not affected retention, either. According to the Army Times<em> <\/em>analysis, as of July, the Army exceeded its retention goal for FY 2022, securing 57,738 active-duty reenlistments against a goal of 55,900.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><em>Dobbs <\/em>Did Not Affect Readiness<\/h2>\n<p>Similarly, <em>Dobbs <\/em>has not adversely affected readiness. Whether intended or unintended, pregnancy has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibisreproductivehealth.org\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/publications\/Military%20Brief%204%202017-02-21_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">implications for readiness<\/a>, and these implications are to be expected when a non-inconsequential number of people in the military are women. Pentagon officials have always known that women of childbearing age get pregnant, and they accepted this as part of the reality of recruiting women. Increased pressures to meet percentage-based \u201cdiversity metrics\u201d have increased the effects, but <em>Dobbs <\/em>has nothing to do with this.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is no publicly available data indicating how many service members abort their babies each year, so the number of extra duty days that might be lost due to out-of-state travel is unknown. A survey by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.servicewomen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018ReproReport_SWAN-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Service Women\u2019s Action Network in 2018<\/a> estimated that 13 percent of active-duty women experienced an unintended pregnancy at some point during their service. Of that 13 percent, less than one-quarter reported they ended the life of the unborn child through abortion. The remainder carried the pregnancy to term, and a few suffered miscarriages. Obviously, the biggest effect on readiness is the vast majority of women who carried their pregnancies to term and not the relatively few who opted for elective abortion.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know the number of women who might have had to miss duty days due to out-of-state travel for abortion, but readiness does not seem to be a problem with the services <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/04\/27\/the-vast-majority-of-troops-kicked-out-for-covid-vaccine-refusal-received-general-discharges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discharging<\/a> thousands of trained, qualified, and experienced service members who have refused a Covid shot. It strains credulity to think that missing a few extra days of duty to travel to and from an out-of-state abortion facility would have a measurable effect on the overall readiness of the force.<\/p>\n<h2>DOD Enlisted in the Abortion Policy Battle<\/h2>\n<p>So what is really going on here? The Biden administration has made no secret that it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2022\/06\/24\/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-actions-in-light-of-todays-supreme-court-decision-on-dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supports abortion rights<\/a> and will seek to codify <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> \u2014 and far beyond it \u2014 in federal law. The Austin memo is a federal push for abortion without congressional participation.<\/p>\n<p>Given the abysmal failure of the services to reach their recruiting goals, it is not surprising that Austin would mischaracterize <em>Dobbs<\/em>, use it as a scapegoat, and propose his new policy to remedy problems not caused by <em>Dobbs<\/em>. But this is not about the three Rs: readiness, recruitment, and retention. It is about the three Ps: preferred policy position.<\/p>\n<p>Blaming the Supreme Court for the military\u2019s personnel readiness problems undermines the credibility of the secretary of Defense, enlists the military in the ongoing political policy debate, and raises gaslighting to an art form. Austin should admit he is following the commander in chief\u2019s policy choices rather than camouflaging his intent under the cloak of military readiness.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Professor Woodruff is a retired Army lawyer and retired law professor. He served 22 years on active duty in the Army Judge Advocate General\u2019s Corps and taught law for over 25 years at Campbell University School of Law in Raleigh, North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Defense seems to be using the Supreme Court\u2019s overruling of Roe v. Wade as an excuse to promote the Biden administration\u2019s abortion agenda. Secretary of Defense Lloyd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1711057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1712721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1711057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1712721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1712721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}