Today, Rep. Lois Frankel (FL-22) released the following statement after voting against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024. House Republicans filled this annual, historically bipartisan bill to the brim with extreme far-right agenda propaganda, including a harmful anti-abortion provision that undermines access to care for women servicemembers.

“The National Defense Authorization Act should demonstrate our strong and abiding commitment to our national defense and national security by ensuring that those who serve and their families have the resources and respect they need and deserve. A bill that was once an example of compromise and functioning government is filled to the brim with extreme far-right provisions that diminish American values, worsen our recruitment and retention crisis, make our military less capable, and do grievous harm to our national defense and national security,” said Rep. Frankel.

“I am especially alarmed by a provision in the bill that blocks women’s access to full reproductive care, including legal abortion. Thousands of our servicewomen are on military bases in states that ban or restrict abortion. This bill undermines the current Department of Defense policy that reimburses travel expenses incurred by servicemembers and their families who must travel to states where abortion is legal to get the health care they need. This puts at risk the well-being and career of women in uniform who stand up for our freedom. We must stand up for theirs.”

The bill passed by a vote of 219-210. The Senate will proceed with their own NDAA process, and it is expected that the final product will come from conference between the House and Senate later this year.

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