 "Photo: Hannah Loftus")
Let me tell you a story about two former soldiers I know.
The first one is a tiny thing, four inches shorter than me, but she did two tours in Iraq, and she is one of the toughest human beings I know.
The second one was sent to Afghanistan, and I could tell by the way she moaned about how she didn’t want to go that she would not be gone long. Sure enough, she returned within a couple of months, pregnant.
A number of women soldiers who get deployed to places like Iraq or Afghanistan get sent home early because they become pregnant ... while they’re over there.
Women are necessary in the military. For example, when patting down suspects to check for weapons, they need women to pat down the women. When a large percentage of the women soldiers get knocked up and sent home early, this creates a negative impact on the rest of the soldiers. In response to this problem, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo issued an order on Nov. 4 stating that any soldier involved in a war-time pregnancy, male or female, could be subject to court martial. As of yet, this rule has not been enforced, but it’s still made many people cry foul.
Four Democratic Senators, all of them women, wrote a letter to Cucolo asking him to rescind that order on Dec. 22, saying, “We can think of no greater deterrent to women contemplating a military career than the image of a pregnant woman being severely punished for conceiving a child.”
Talk about missing the point. These women are not getting pregnant while on home soil with plenty of time to spare before deployment; they are using pregnancy as an excuse to neglect their duties as soldiers in war zones. Either right before they are deployed, or as soon as they set foot over there, they sleep around to intentionally get pregnant so they can leave early. Many capable women soldiers, such as the one I mentioned earlier, face prejudice and ridicule from men because these deserters are giving women soldiers a bad name.
And who could blame the men for being angry for women using pregnancy as an excuse to desert their duties? That isn’t fair. The men have no such cop-out available to them unless they desert. Why shouldn’t women deserters be punished, too?
If women wish to join the military, they must be just as willing to go to war for their country as any man. Women cannot expect to have equal rights with men if they use reproduction as an excuse to get out of their duties. Women can join the military and have children, but when they are in combat zones, the only thing they should be doing is their job as soldiers. Separate but equal is not equal.
Unfortunately, the older I get, the more realistic and cynical I have become. I realize that no matter how much you try to explain to them that they are doing more harm than good for women’s rights by copping out on the menfolk, they won’t listen. They’ll cry and moan about their rights to breed, totally neglecting the fact that they are, first and foremost, soldiers.
Last time I checked, a soldier’s body was not his or her own. Legally, it’s government property, which means the government dictates to a soldier what they can and cannot do with his or her body. While this policy has resulted in some very unfortunate incidents, such as the Edgewood experiments, it is supposed to ensure that soldiers are regulated so they can perform their duties as needed.
So, since I can’t talk sense into the people who signed up for the job, I have a suggestion for their boss instead: Change the policy. Instead of punishing soldiers for war-zone pregnancy, make it mandatory for all women soldiers to be on birth control. And not just any birth control; make sure it’s Depo-Provera, a type of birth control given by injection. If we can’t rely on women soldiers to keep their pants on, we can’t rely on them to take a pill every day, now can we? Not to mention the fact that, for the legitimate women soldiers, being in a combat zone isn’t the best place to remember to take a pill every single day. The Depo-Provera shot, on the other hand, is only needed once every three months. Every soldier is required to get a dozen shots before they go over there anyway, so just add this to their round of inoculations. Problem solved.
I have much respect for all soldiers. I come from a military family myself. If some women demand to be treated as equally as the men, but use excuses to cop out of doing their duty, I say we beat them to the punch and prevent them from doing so by making Depo-Provera mandatory while they are stationed in combat zones. If the chances of a woman soldier becoming pregnant while in combat were basically eliminated by doing so, their fellow soldiers might feel they can count on them more. A soldier in combat has only one duty, and that is to be a soldier, no matter which gender.
40 comments
Let's be honest if your daughter or sister enlisted and is deployed, captured, tortured and raped, the last thing she'd need to deal with is pregnancy. She may be one who chooses not to voluntarily become pregnant to get out of duty, but as awful as this may be, the possiblity is VERY REAL.
So, do I think that it should be mandatory for single female soldiers to be on birth control? ABSOLUTELY, I would think they would want to be. Do I think it will happen - absolutely not.
But I do think that those who get pregnant (and have not been captured) should be punished to the point of dishonorable discharge. OH HECK YES!!!
They chose to serve. They chose to take the creed. And getting knocked up to get out of duty is very dishonorable!!
My issue is that you write about a policy that had been rescinded long before you published your stupid commentary. If you want to speak about military things, then get your facts straight. You didn't quote a single source in your article. What kind of crappy english major are you? Perhaps you might be better served waiting until you're a Senior and know a little something about journalistic integrity before you write some garbage you know absolutely nothing about.
The very temporary order you talked about had been included into General Order #1. It has since been removed. They will still enforce the other portions that deal with infidelity, fraternazation, etc. Your article is just further proof that non-military people ought to stay the hell out of our business.
What blows me more away than anything else is that a woman wrote this article. If i would have even dared to say some of the retarded things you said, I would be thrown into the public stocks and beaten down.
Do yourself a big favor and keep your uneducated, cromagnon thoughts to yourself.