Jody Duffy, a former U.S. Army officer, is responding to a new bill Democrats in Congress have filed that would re-institute a Clinton-era policy that allowed abortions at taxpayer-funded U.S. military base hospitals.

Current law in effect since 1996 prohibits the performance of abortion by Department of Defense medical personnel or at DOD medical facilities. A separate provision prohibits the use of DOD funds for abortion except to save the life of the mother. But the MARCH for Military Women Act would lift the current bans and abortion advocates have tried for years to force military base hospitals to do abortions on female service members.

Duffy, a retreat leader for Rachel’s Vineyard, a post-abortion healing program that is part of Priests for Life, writes in a new opinion column in the Los Angeles Times that lawmakers should oppose the legislation...

President Obama plans to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense, Fox News confirms. As part of a broad reshuffling of his defense and intelligence teams, the president is also expected to pick Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in charge in Afghanistan, to take Panetta's place at the helm of the CIA.

The changes are part of a series of top nominations expected to be announced as early as Wednesday.

Officials say Obama is expected to announce that Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and that diplomat Ryan Crocker will be the next U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan. A senior defense official also told Fox News the president will "almost certainly" tap Gen. James Cartwright to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Cartwright is currently vice chairman...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will lay out his vision on how to reduce the nation's spending deficit and the national debt during a major speech at George Washington University on Wednesday night.

White House officials say the president will announce a balanced approach that addresses the three legs of the stool that cost the U.S. government the most money, including:
* Entitlement programs like Medicare
* The U.S. Defense Department
* Tax breaks on everything from college tuition to real estate.

Obama's plan will likely include recommendations from members of the president's bi-partisan debt commission, led by former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and Democratic businessman Erskine Bowles...

The pro-life movement has received a significant legislative victory with today’s vote in the Senate passing a Department of Defense funding bill without a change in the policy prohibiting military base abortions.

Earlier this month, the Senate turned back a second attempt by pro-abortion Democrats to stop a Republican filibuster against a Defense Department funding measure that would also allow abortions at military base hospitals.

Subsequently, the House passed a bill, H.R. 6523, that leaves current pro-life law in place and does not contain an amendment offered in the Senate by Senator Roland Burris which would permit the performance of abortions in both domestic and overseas military facilities...

(CNSNews.com) - 66.5 percent of U.S. Marine combat forces surveyed by a special Defense Department working group said that putting homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness in the field, and 47.8 percent of Marines in combat units specifically said putting homosexuals in their units would hurt their effectiveness “in an intense combat situation.”

The U.S. Congress voted last week to repeal the law—commonly known as Don’t Ask, Don’ Tell—that barred homosexuals from serving in the military.

Earlier this year, after President Barack Obama said in his 2010 State of the Union Address that he wanted to end the ban on homosexuals in the military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates put together a special working group to begin making plans for integrating homosexuals into the Armed Forces if Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell were in fact repealed...

(CNSNews.com) – Calling it a “tragic day for our armed forces,” the conservative Family Research Council criticized the lame-duck Senate for passing a bill which, the FRC says, will do nothing to enhance national security or help the military do its job.

But the U.S. defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff welcomed Saturday’s vote by the U.S. Senate that eventually will end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the U.S. military.

Once the bill is signed into law by the president, the Department of Defense said it will “immediately proceed with the planning necessary to carry out this change carefully and methodically, but purposefully”...

Senate Republicans today unanimously agreed to use a filibuster to block any controversial legislation until a deal is worked out on extending tax cuts to Americans — a move that could affect abortion.

The Senate is currently under watch by those who are concerned about the Defense Department funding bill, the last version of which has an amendment that would allow abortions at taxpayer funded military base hospitals.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, all 42 Republicans said they would not agree to proceed on any legislation until the Senate has agreed to extend the tax cuts. Their decision means they would prevent Senate Democrats from voting on the Defense bill with or without the provision for abortions...

Pro-military advocates are warning against the dangers of letting federal district court judges start making significant Pentagon policy, saying it would essentially turn the military over to a network of political appointees who could be swayed by various pressure groups.

If a district court judge in one unilateral order can strike down a legal ban on open gays in the military, as did federal Judge Virginia A. Phillips, then such judges also could strike down the prohibition on women in land combat, or rules on wearing a uniform, or requirements for grooming, or even the war against al Qaeda.

Judge Phillips went beyond ruling the gay ban unconstitutional and letting appeals courts weigh in: She ordered the Pentagon to stop enforcing it — worldwide...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate is slated to vote this week on the Department of Defense Authorization bill, which includes a provision to allow abortions on military base hospitals both domestically and abroad. The Senate will vote on a motion filed by pro-abortion Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

He will ask lawmakers to stop the filibuster against the bill and approve a motion to proceed to a vote on the measure.

Most Republicans, potentially joined by a couple of Democrats like Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, are expected to oppose the Reid cloture vote motion and continue with their strong opposition to the bill...

A conservative military watchdog says the supposed "compromise" worked out between President Obama and the Pentagon to repeal the law banning homosexuals serving in the military is nothing more than an attempt to pay back radical homosexual political supporters.

Associated Press reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is reluctantly supporting a White House-backed proposal in Congress that would immediately repeal the 1993 law that bans homosexuals from serving in the military.

Gates will back the measure because Congress has left it up to him when to implement the changes. The proposal was considered a compromise with some Democrats, who want an immediate repeal of the law...