MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A new report Monday from NBC News detailed possible plans for the Biden Administration to reverse the U.S. Air Force’s plans to relocate Space Command to Huntsville over the state’s strict abortion law.
Reporters Courtney Cube and Carol Lee quoted officials on background claiming that the White House’s plans were “all about abortion politics,” including U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s recent efforts to block military promotion votes in the Senate in an attempt to force the Pentagon to reverse its recently updated policy to pay for service members or their families to seek abortions in states with less restrictive policies.
On the record, administration officials denied to NBC News that Alabama’s abortion law had anything to do with the still ongoing official review of the Space Command decision.
Last week, Alabama Daily News reported in the latest edition of Inside Alabama Politics that this move could be happening soon. And ADN columnist Stephen Boyd said the now years’ long selection process has become a charade.
In 2019, the Alabama Legislature passed and Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a measure banning abortion in all circumstances, with a narrow exception for a risk to the mother’s life and none for rape or incest. That law, originally held up by federal lawsuits, became active last year in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
State officials on Monday took to social media to decry the possible change and point to a multi-criteria selection in which Huntsville was determined to be a far better location than Colorado.
“President (Joe) Biden’s plans would irresponsibly yank a military decision out of the Air Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, said in a written statement. “Huntsville finished first in both the Air Force’s Evaluation Phase and Selection Phase, leaving no doubt that the Air Force’s decision to choose Redstone as the preferred basing location was correct purely on the merits. That decision should remain in the Air Force’s purview. Instead, President Biden is now trying to hand the gold medal to the fifth-place finisher. The President’s blatant prioritization of partisan political considerations at the expense of our national security, military modernization, and force readiness is a disservice and a dishonor to his oath of office as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief.”
The decision to move the installation from Colorado Springs to a permanent home Huntsville was made in early 2021 when the Air Force said the Rocket City Huntsville “compared favorably across more of these factors than any other community, providing a large, qualified workforce, quality schools, superior infrastructure capacity, and low initial and recurring costs.”
🧵“Two previous, extensive reviews that took place after President Joe Biden took office…found there was no improper political influence on the process that awarded the headquarters to Alabama.”
Fact check: true.https://t.co/izHwEmetLl
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) May 16, 2023
“I’ve seen all the reviews and reports on the basing process – but don’t remember access to late-term abortions being one of the 21 criteria used to evaluate the sites,” U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, said in a written statement Monday.
He said the White House’s “inaction and handwringing” have brought the consequence of a more than two-year delay for the final basing decision for Space Command.
“If it is now Department of Defense policy to punish conservative states implementing the will of their voters, I’d suggest that Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, Louisiana, Wyoming, Arkansas, Kentucky, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, and Utah start calling the Pentagon to ask if they should be worried about their installations.”
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, Alabama’s lone Democrat in D.C., on Monday called on the White House to reconfirm Huntsville as the Space Command headquarters.
“To change course would be because of politics and not merit,” she said. “Surely, the Biden Administration would not allow politics to improperly influence this decision.”