Senate Passes Defense Bill That Would Require Women To Register For the Draft

Alissa Lopez | June 15, 2016
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On Tuesday, the Senate passed the $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2017 fiscal year in an 85-13 vote. The legislation contained a requirement for women to register with the Selective Service.

To break it down for you, during a closed committee markup to remove the draft registration portion of the bill (which obviously failed) Republicans split the vote 7-7 and Democrats voted 7-19.

For the bill's final passage in the Senate, Republicans voted 48 "yays" to 6 "nays" on the bill, while Democrats voted 37-7.

So, is it too late to start building my underground bunker in an immensely forested area in Alaska? I’m getting the sense that it might be. I would have been perfectly okay and capable of being a nurse and tending to injured soldiers or even staying in my home and raising children. But I am not mentally or physically capable of engaging in bloody, dangerous warfare.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was quite vocal in his opposition toward the bill, stating, “It is a radical change that is attempting to be foisted on the American people.”

“The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls into combat, to my mind, makes little or no sense. It is at a minimum a radical proposition. I could not vote for a bill that did so, particularly that did so without public debate.”

Sen. Cruz co-sponsored an amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Lee approximately a month ago to strip that one provision from the bill, but the amendment reportedly was never brought to the Senate floor for a vote.

Lee stated last month that, “Forcing women to register for the draft would be a sea change not only for our Armed Services but culturally as well.” 

“I simply have not seen enough research from the Department of Defense on why this is needed or how it would work.”

According to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), the “Armed Service Committee agreed that there [was] simply no further justification to limit Selective Service registration to men.”

No wonder Dr. Kelli Ward is slowly creeping up on John McCain in the Arizona polls. No offense to the veteran, but there are a number of reasons why women should not be obligated to register for the draft and they are quite logical and simple reasons.

Who will care for the children or households back at home? Are all women psychologically and physically capable of enduring active combat roles? Remember, men and women are physically built differently

Even though President Obama threatened to veto the bill in its current form (albeit for different reasons), Tuesday’s final vote was enough to override that possibility.

I think I can speak for a good portion of American women when I say many of us were simply not cut out for the military.

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