Sen. Mike Lee defends colleague's abortion fight despite party backlash

SALT LAKE CITY — If ending abortion is your top priority, right now is a difficult time to be a Republican.

Following last summer's historic Supreme Court decision to return the question of abortion restriction to the states, Republicans have been battered by a series of shocking losses at the ballot box, including in the 2022 midterms and on Tuesday, when Ohioans voted in favor of enshrining the right to abortion in their state constitution.

One senator, however, has staked his reputation on a months-long military promotions blockade in the name of overturning a Secretary of Defense abortion policy even as his strategy draws the collective ire of his Senate Republican colleagues.

But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is not one to give into peer pressure. And neither is one of his staunchest defenders — Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

"The bullying of Sen. Tuberville continues," Lee said Wednesday on X, one week after Republican senators staged a public shaming of Tuberville in a scene rarely observed on the Senate floor.

The night of Nov. 1, GOP lawmakers, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, took to the stand to accuse Tuberville of going back on his word, disrupting military readiness and damaging the institution of the Senate.

While recognizing their solidarity with Tuberville's opposition to a rule that allows active-duty service members to receive a reimbursement for abortion-related travel, the Republican senators lambasted their Alabama colleague for his strategy of refusing to fast track the promotion of military officers, which over the course of nine months has resulted in 376 holds on high-ranking military officials.

Tuberville's critics say this procedural protest places the burden on the wrong people — on hardworking service members instead of Biden administration officials — but Tuberville's defenders, including Lee, counter that the responsibility for the holdup rests squarely on President Joe Biden and his cabinet.

On Nov. 2, Lee pushed back on his Republican colleagues in a series of posts on X.

"Tuberville = hero Republicans opposing him = wrong," read one. "1. Tuberville isn't the problem. 2. (The Secretary of Defense) created this mess. 3. It's disappointing that several Senate Republicans have chosen to blame Tuberville rather than (The Secretary of Defense)," read another.

Lee, a strict federalist who believes abortion regulation should be left to the states, argued that in the context of taxpayer-funded military policies, it is well within Tuberville's right to use all the tools at his disposal to implement or roll back abortion policy.

"It's interesting to see groups and elected officials who claim to be pro-life, but haven't lifted a finger to defend him," Lee said on Monday.

But as patience among Senate Republicans runs out, talk has grown of joining Democrats in taking Tuberville's tool off the table.

A Democrat-led proposal, which would require the buy-in of nine Senate Republicans to reach 60 votes, would circumvent current Senate rules that require unanimous consent to quickly approve multiple nominations at once.

As a "standing order," the rule change would be temporary and would include an exception for top-level promotions, which would still have to pass through the Senate one at a time, according to Punchbowl News.

However, Republicans fear using this method to circumvent Tuberville's "no" vote would lead to a slippery slope, the Dispatch reported, by decreasing senators' individual power.

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