House Republicans moved this week to roll back a wide range of Pentagon policies related to abortion, diversity, and LGBTQ rights—policies that had been put in place by the Obama administration.
The measures, which were part of the annual defense policy bill approved by the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, would bar the Pentagon from using its resources to fund abortions through the military health care system, exclude certain diversity programs, repeal the 2014 Obama-era policy that allowed the Pentagon to pay the costs for gender transition treatments, and block funding for gender-specific recruitment activities.
The panel rejected a bipartisan effort to maintain several Obama-era policies involving diversity, religious freedom and other personal issues, which the Pentagon has continued to use to attract and retain qualified personnel.
The House plans on voting on the defense policy bill as soon as next month, but the Senate has yet to weigh in on the measure and it could still stall in Congress. The Trump administration has indicated that it agrees with the House efforts to roll back the Pentagon policies.
