WATCH: John Kirby Loses Temper over Tuberville, Calls Abortion ‘Necessary Health Care’

John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House National Security Council, lost his temper Tuesday when asked why the Pentagon refuses to drop a policy of paying for troops to travel for abortions.

Owen Jensen, the White House corespondent for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a Catholic outlet, asked Kirby during a press briefing about Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) committing to keep blocking promotions at the Pentagon until the Department of Defense drops its controversial new policy to fund travel for female service members who are stationed in states where abortion is restricted so that they can have abortions in other states.

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Kirby said it was a “lie” that the Pentagon’s policy violated existing law barring federal funding for abortions, saying “they have done a legal scrub of this at DOD.”

When asked why, if national security was at stake, the Pentagon simply did not drop the policy, Kirby lost his cool.

“The suggestion is we should just turn our backs on one in five members of the United States military, let alone their family members, just so we can get these officers confirmed.” Kirby snapped.

He added:

That would just be an egregious violation of the covenant that we make, that the military makes, with the people that sign up and volunteer. Remember this: they’re volunteers. There’s not conscription, there’s no draft. People volunteer for this. And when they volunteer duty, they have every right to expect that they’re going to get the health care that they need. And let me tell you this: a healthy force is a ready force. So don’t talk to me about national security being impaired. The one impairing national security is Senator Tuberville. Not only because he’s depriving the military of necessary leadership in the field and at sea, but he’s also willing to deprive female members of the military — 20% of the force — from necessary health care. That, both, is a violation of national security.

Abortion is typically an elective procedure, though it may be medically necessary in rare circumstances.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.