Pregnant While in a War Zone
On November 4, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, who oversees American forces in northern Iraq, issued a policy listing twenty new reasons soldiers could be court-martialed while on active duty in a war zone. These reasons included selling weapons, taking drugs, and becoming pregnant.
Not surprisingly, the shit hit the fan once word of the policy got out. Not about soldiers being forbidden to sell their weapons or take drugs, but about court-martialing pregnant soldiers for, well, doing what all women do. Which is, apparently, get pregnant. Because women can’t control themselves and are enslaved by their biology.
The sad thing is, most would probably agree with that point. After all, nearly every woman I know (and some men) have insisted that it is “impossible” to manage one’s fertility to the point of being absolutely sure one can have sex and remain pregnancy-free. All forms of birth control have a failure rate, right? Especially if you’re serving in the military where it might not be convenient to take those little pills at the same time every day. Hell, the way people talk, taking birth control is the #1 sure-fire way to make sure you fall pregnant (as the British so charmingly say). So the new policy had people up in arms because, while you can choose to sell weapons, and you can choose to do drugs, you do not choose pregnancy. Even if you use birth control, pregnancy is inevitable.
The few comments on the “Pregnant Soldiers To Be Court-Martialed!” online articles that I could stomach to read were quite irate over the matter. Women shouldn’t be penalized for becoming pregnant, no matter what the situation. (We’ll avoid, for this article, the very real threat of rape while in the military, since none of the articles or comments I read mentioned it. It’s clear the assumption on the part of the article authors and the commenters was that the policy was targeting pregnancies resulting from consensual sex.)
Forgive me if I roll my eyes here. Maybe access to birth control can be spotty while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe women have no self-control and will have sex while on duty, even if their birth control isn’t readily available. Maybe the baby-rabies was just too strong for some women.
But, I say, so what?
We have an all-volunteer army. Every single one of the men and women serving made a conscious choice to sign up, knowing full well that being in the military curtails many of the personal freedoms the rest of us utilize every day without thinking. You can no longer decide where you are going to live, where you will serve, or how you will be trained. You can’t go home whenever you like, and if you’d prefer not to go to war, well, that’s just too bad. If your unit goes, you go with it.
So, say you’re a soldier that no longer wants to be serving in a war, what do you do? Fake an illness? Fake insanity? Suddenly become a conscientious objector? Those are possibilities. But if you’re female, you’ve got a trump card to play — you can become pregnant. George Wright, an army spokesman, said that, in the past, the typical treatment for the pregnant soldier was that she was sent home.
What if her absence leaves her unit short-handed? What if getting to go home for a pregnancy and leaving the rest of her buddies behind in the sand screws with unit morale? Hey, who cares? ‘Cause when the going gets tough, the tough get knocked up and accept their ticket home.
It seems to me perfectly logical that, instead of being rewarded by being sent Stateside, soldiers using biology to get a “get out of Iraq free” card should be punished. Court-martial them. Give them dishonorable discharge. Whatever it takes.
Ultimately, this is about women taking responsibility for themselves. Isn’t that supposedly what we marched for? For the chance to prove ourselves and not be brushed aside because we were just “girls?” Yet for some women, it’s too tempting to play the victim. Because, you know, fertility is uncontrollable and sex drives irrepressible. We women are helpless to do anything about either. So we’d better not suffer any consequences for our biology.
In the end, outrage won the day. The policy has been rescinded, so I guess that’s a victory of sorts. Women can continue to get out of their military service by becoming victims of biology. Yippee for our side.
Copyright Martha Kneib. Published 2 January 2010 in Editorials.
Reader comments
Commenting is closed for this article.
Thank you Martha for tackling this prickly subject. I had mixed reactions when I read this story. It annoys me that some think that female soldiers are incapable of preventing pregnancy and therefore should not be punished for getting pregnant. Of course, we know it is possible to prevent pregnancy if you are diligent and motivated and we also know that the pill is not 100 percent effective. However, when soldiers engage in sex with fellow soldiers with little regard for the consequences for their unit, themselves, and their families (in the case of extramarital sex) then I do believe some kind of punishment is in order. I agree with those who say we should punish for the fraternization rather than the pregnancy because then both parties having consensual sex would be subjected to the same punishment regardless of gender and abuses of power in the cases of sexual relations across ranks would be dealt with in a fair and consistent manner.
permalink — 4 January 2010, 07:33
Why wasn’t abortion mentioned? Maybe give a choice between court martial and an abortion. It’s war, right?
permalink — 11 January 2010, 23:03
Amen, Martha! However, I’m disappointed to learn that political correctness has won even in a state of war.
permalink — 15 January 2010, 17:18
The only reason this is becoming an issue is that you wouldn’t believe the number of female soldiers who get pregnant right before or during a deployment, just to get out of it. This isn’t fair to the male soldiers, and it’s doubly unfair to the female soldiers who are responsible and serious about their service to their country.
Birth control in the military is FREE, but yes, accidents can happen. But this happens too often to be all “accidents”. It’s so bad that The Powers That Be realize they have to get tough on it, only the bleeding hearts “Women can’t prevent pregnancy! We’re all victims!” crowd is bullying them into letting this problem continue.
permalink — 27 January 2010, 16:37