Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday dropped his nearly yearlong blockade against all military nominees below four-star promotions, greenlighting Senate confirmation of more than 400 promotions at the Pentagon.

The Alabama Republican’s decision likely staved off Democrats’ temporary rule change to circumvent his hold, which was expected to garner enough Republican support to pass.

It was not immediately clear whether Democrats would still proceed with their legislation to confirm the four-star generals Mr. Tuberville is continuing to block.

Mr. Tuberville has prevented the confirmations of any military promotions over the last 10 months in protest of the Pentagon’s policy to pay for time off and travel expenses for servicemembers to receive out-of-state abortions.

“We’re a pro-life caucus, and we’re pro-military,” Mr. Tuberville told reporters. “[Democrats] could have promoted these people a long time ago, but because of an illegal policy that they pushed on the American people and the constitution, we had a lot of people that did not get promoted.”

• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.