Senate Republicans introduce 'Don't Draft Our Daughters' resolution to block Democrats including women in the military draft

A group of six Republican senators including Mike Lee, Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley is challenging legislation that would force women to register for the draft when they turn 18. 

'Women have heroically served in and alongside America’s fighting forces since our nation’s founding. It’s one thing to allow American women to choose this life, it’s quite another to force it upon our daughters, sisters, and wives,' Missouri Senator Hawley said on Twitter. 'Missourians feel strongly that compelling women to serve is wrong and so do I.' 

Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana and Roger Wicker of Mississippi make up the group who introduced the 'Don't Draft Our Daughters' resolution.

On Friday the six lawmakers challenged the Senate Armed Services Committee over language in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that would, for the first time, require females in the US aged 18 to 25 to register for the Selective Service. 

Senators Josh Hawley and Mike Lee are two of the Republicans backing the 'Don't Draft our Daughters' resolution

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio is also throwing his weight behind the measure

It passed overwhelmingly in the committee on a 23-3 vote. Hawley along with Senators Tom Cotton and Senator Elizabeth Warren voted no.

Utah Senator Lee said the change would create a 'burdensome and disproportionally increased risk of injury and fatalities for our nation's women.'

Lankford added in a statement that women are eligible for the 'any role in our military that they choose,' but said 'they should not be compelled to sign up for selective service.' 

No American has been drafted to the military since the Vietnam War. But under current law, males who fail to register are barred from accessing federal student air or holding a government job. 

Congress has tried to expand the draft to women before, but opposition mainly led by Republicans has stopped it

They could also be fined $250,000 or face up to five years in jail.

Congress has tried in the past to amend the Military Selective Services Act to include women in the draft, but opposition mainly led by Republicans have stopped those efforts.

Under a proposal from Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed, the existing legislation's text would be changed to 'all Americans' and remove the male reference.

But the Republicans' new resolution cited data that states 'only a small subset of women are able to meet the physical fitness requirements for combat roles' in their evidence against the measure.

It also points to the disparity between men in women in completing the Army fitness test ever since it became gender-neutral in 2018. 

'United States Army data has demonstrated a fail rate ranging between 65 percent and 84 percent for women and between 10 percent and 30 percent for men on the Army Combat Fitness test since its inception,' the resolution reads.

The measure to expand the draft to all Americans was introduced by Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed , pictured here with fellow committee member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

Military research also reflects enlisted women having a six-time higher injury rate than men. 

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton also voiced opposition on Twitter this month.

'Congress should not force women to sign up for the military draft,' he wrote.

GOP Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois went a steop further and urged the House Armed Services Committee to draft legislation removing the Selective Service altogether.

The military lifted all bans on women serving in military roles, including combat, in 2015.  

Republicans have voiced opposition to including women in the draft for years

 The Supreme Court was asked in June to decide whether it’s sex discrimination for the government to require only men to register for the draft when they turn 18.

Ria Tabacco Mar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Women's Rights Project, who is urging the court to take up the issue, says requiring men to register imposes a 'serious burden on men that's not being imposed on women.'

Tabacco Mar said that the current law sends a 'tremendously harmful message that women are less fit than men to serve their country in this particular way and conversely that men are less fit than women to stay home as caregivers in the event of an armed conflict.'

'We think those stereotypes demean both men and women,' she said.

Even if the draft is never used again, retaining the men-only requirement sends a 'really damaging message,' said Tabacco Mar, who represents the National Coalition For Men and two individual men challenging the law.  

The Defense Department said all military roles would be open to women without exception in 2015

The Biden administration is urging the justices not to take the case and to let Congress instead tackle the issue.

Administration lawyers wrote in a brief that any 'reconsideration of the constitutionality of the male-only registration requirement ... would be premature at this time' because Congress is 'actively considering' the issue.

The Selective Service System, the agency that oversees registration, said in a statement that it doesn't comment on pending litigation but that it is 'capable of performing whatever mission Congress should mandate.'

If the court agrees to take the case, arguments wouldn't happen until the fall at the earliest, after the court's summer break.

The court already has high-profile cases awaiting it then. They include a major challenge to abortion rights and an appeal to expand gun rights.