Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi went off on Republican lawmakers Thursday for an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act which would bar the military from paying for sex change operations for service members. She claims not allowing sex changes “undermines our national security.”
Montana Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler introduced the amendment to reverse an Obama-era policy requiring the military to foot the bill for procedures, like sex reassignment surgeries, that aren’t covered on a majority of private insurance plans.
She said in a statement: “The job of Congress is to ensure that our military is the most effective, efficient and well-funded fighting force in the world. With the challenges we are facing across the globe, we are asking the American people to invest their hard-earned money in national defense. Each dollar needs to be spent to address threats facing us.
“My amendment ends the 2016 Obama Administration practice of the military paying for very expensive gender change surgeries that even most private insurance plans don’t cover. This amendment does not prevent anyone from joining the military or receiving standard medical care. It simply makes sure our defense resources are allocated in a way that is smart and good for our national defense. This current policy of providing and paying for transgender surgeries hurts readiness and is projected to cost over a billion dollars over the next ten years.”
The left didn’t see the amendment as a fiscal matter, but an as an attack on transgender U.S. service members. In a statement Thursday, Pelosi characterized the measure as an effort to entirely strip healthcare benefits from LGBTQ members.
“Republicans should be ashamed: instead of protecting the men and women who risk their lives to defend our freedoms, they are fighting to rip away the health care of thousands of brave service members,” she said. “This cowardly Republican amendment targeting transgender men and women in uniform effectively bans these patriotic Americans from serving their country.”
That, of course, isn’t true.