Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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Five months after Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and other Republican lawmakers raised objections, legislators have removed a measure from the pending 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that would have required women to register for selective service for the first time in our nation’s history.

“It appears the NDAA will no longer require women to register for the military draft,” Hawley said in a statement. “I certainly hope that is the case. If it is not, then I will keep fighting for a vote on the Senate floor to strip this wrong and misguided provision out of the final bill.”

The House Armed Services Committee, currently chaired by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), had initially included the measure on the grounds that the traditional all-voluntary model would not allow the military to recruit enough qualified personnel in the event of a crisis.

“God forbid, if we’re in that place where we need to call on everybody to help us, we will need all kinds of skills,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) told Axios in November. “Cyber-related skills, as well as other sorts of skills that we don’t necessarily currently think of when we think of the Selective Service.”

Proponents also said that compulsory military service would be a victory for gender equity.

However, Hawley and his colleagues cited the safety of women in combat as well as broader concerns about forcing women to serve. 

“God bless that woman if she wants to go serve in the military and is prepared to fight,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Axios last month. “That that is a choice that is available to her. But I’m the father of two daughters. The idea that the government would forcibly draft them and put them in a place where they would be engaged in combat against a man who the statistics demonstrate is likely to have significantly more body mass and significantly more body strength? That’s not fair.”

The NDAA has passed the House but awaits Senate approval.