While the nation is debating the highly-charged issue of blurring the lines to the bathrooms, another line between men and women was potentially erased Thursday night to little fanfare.

The Senate Armed Services Committee added a provision to its version of the annual defense policy bill that requires women to sign up for Selective Service — the draft — starting in January, 2018. In the bill women would be required to register for the draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday, just like men are required, and, like men, would affect women between 18 and 26 years of age.

The House is expected next week to vote on their version of the bill, and the Senate will reconsider its bill later this month.

The bill was passed by the committee 23-3, with conservative Senate members Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in outspoken opposition.

Lee said in a statement: “This is a highly consequential — and, for many American families, a deeply controversial — decision that deserves to be resolved by Congress after a robust and transparent debate in front of the American people, instead of buried in an embargoed document that is passed every year to fund military pay and benefits,” and Cruz added in his release, “I cannot in good conscience vote to draft our daughters into the military, sending them off to war and forcing them into combat.”

So whom do we thank for this kerfuffle?

None other than Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who slipped that little doozy into the bill.

Military analyst Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, slammed McCain for his sneak attack. She wrote:

“People who support both women and military readiness will be surprised and disappointed to know that behind closed doors, Senate Armed Services Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) deliberately slipped into the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) damaging legislation to impose Selective Service obligations, including a possible future draft, on unsuspecting girls-next-door.”

She adds that while the draft hasn’t been used since 1973, and that military leaders are not interested in abandoning the all-volunteer military, should an emergency arise, US forces could be flooded with women who could never pass the physical standards for infantry.

“The Selective Service system would have to divert scarce time and resources trying to evaluate great numbers of women, just to find the small percentage who might be minimally qualified for the combat arms. This would create a political crisis and a paralyzing administrative overload that would weaken our armed forces at the worst possible time.”

But. . . equality!

How do women feel about the possibility of being drafted?

Media Research Center’s Dan Joseph posed the question to several men and women on a college campus. While the women were pom-pom girls for “equality,” when the subject of being drafted into military service was broached — well, let’s just say their enthusiasm waned.

There have always been — and always will be — capable women ready to take on the responsibilities for defending the nation, whether in the air, on the land, or at sea. But American military forces have performed victoriously in World Wars I and II without the need to conscript women. They shouldn’t need to do so now.

So within a 24-hour window, the President has issued directives to public schools allowing girls’ bathroom access to high school boys who feel pretty. Now a Senate committee has decided that girls should be forced to be like men and register for the draft.

There isn’t a face palm big enough to cover that.