House Action Could Make Women Subject to Military Draft

By Scott D. Jones

• The House Armed Services Committee has voted to move forward a measure that would expand the draft to include women. According to The Epoch Times, lawmakers changed course on a measure that would have suspended military conscription. Instead, the committee voted to expand the draft to include women. 

• The news outlet reported that the decision to continue and expand the draft to include women came as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Lawmakers voted 35-24 Wednesday to pass a bipartisan amendment by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Mike Waltz, R-Fla.

  ''Women make up over 50 percent of our population, and not including them in the Selective Service is not only a disservice to these women, but also to our nation as a whole,'' Houlahan said via Twitter.

  Anti-draft activist Edward Hasbrouck told The Epoch Times there was a proposed NDAA amendmentthat would have ended the Selective Service System, but it was ruled out of order due to what he called ''arcane'' rules  prohibiting legislation that increases the deficit.

  The House NDAA is now in sync with the Senate NDAA in terms of military conscription, with both proposing to expand the duty to women. The policy has bipartisan support.

  Not everyone agrees, however. Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky., co-sponsored a bill earlier this year with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would ''finally put an end to the expensive, wasteful, outdated, punitive, and unnecessary military draft registration system.''

  ''We believe that a better way to achieve equality under the law would be to end military draft registration altogether and scrap this needless and expensive bureaucracy,'' Paul and Wyden stated in a July 23 letter.

  But Hasbrouck said he thinks the writing is on the wall: ''It’s now overwhelmingly likely that the Fiscal Year 2022 NDAA to be adopted in late 2021 or early 2022 will authorize the president to order women to register for the draft at age 18, starting in 2023 with women born in 2005 and after,'' he wrote on his personal site.