Pregnancy as punishable offense

[spotbird]

In an article about the ban on military abortions that Broadsheet covered last week, Kathryn Joyce describes what it was like for a Marine named Amy when she became pregnant in Iraq: "Amy knew that if her pregnancy were discovered, she would be sent back to her home base at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune... She also knew she could face reprimands from her commanding officers for having had sex in Iraq (part of a broader prohibition on sex in war zones), and that she might not be promoted as a result: a potentially career-ending situation in the Marines, where failure to obtain regular promotions results in being discharged. Moreover, as a woman in the military, accustomed to proving herself to her male peers over her six-year career, Amy was wary of appearing a 'weak female.'"

Other pregnant service members have faced similar dilemmas, and now, for women serving under Army Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo in northern Iraq, pregnancy itself will be a punishable offense. Cucolo told the BBC the threat of a court martial for pregnant soldiers is intended to be a deterrent to unprotected sex. The policy will apply to both the man and woman involved in a pregnancy, even if they're married. "I've got a mission to do, I'm given a finite number of soldiers with which to do it and I need every one of them," Cucolo said. "So I'm going to take every measure I can to keep them all strong, fit and with me for the twelve months we are in the combat zone."

http://salon.com/news/iraq_war/index.html?story=/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/12/21/pregnancy_court_martial

[RainDog]

1. I never knew immaculate conception applied to female soldiers

what happens to the soldier who had sex with the woman who gets court-martialed?

what if she got pregnant after a birth control failure? women get punished for having ovaries?

[jobycom]

4. The article says it will apply to the male, too.

I'm sure the woman won't often reveal who the man is, but the military can find out if they want to badly enough. They have the power to set aside a lot of rights, do DNA tests, threaten the woman with stronger penalties for not revealing the father, and interrogating friends of the woman to see who it could have been, with the threat of court martialing friends who won't talk, too. IF they are committed, they can make it hold. That's the question, though.

[jmowreader]

5. And about the DNA tests...

The military has the DNA of every soldier already. They collected it to help aid in the identification of remains, but you know if someone comes up pregnant it wouldn't take a hell of a lot to do amnio on her then run the DNA through the database.

[asjr]

2. This is insane! I thought I had heard it all, but now

I see I hadn't until now.

[BrotherLove]

3. Pretty disgusting considering this

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/

Many female soldiers say they are sexually assaulted by their male comrades and can't trust the military to protect them. "The knife wasn't for the Iraqis," says one woman. "It was for the guys on my own side."