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Photo by PeachyApple
Last month, a Major General added pregnancy to his list of prohibitions. If you're an American solider in Iraq and you get pregnant (or get someone pregnant), you face punishment, including a court martial and jail time. The policy also applies to married soldiers who are in Iraq together.
According to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, an employer cannot fire or force an employee to leave because she is pregnant. Apparently the act doesn't apply here.
The Major General defends his directive in a written statement to his troops, "I need every soldier I've got, especially since we are facing a drawdown of forces during our mission. Anyone who leaves this fight earlier than the expected 12-month deployment creates a burden on their teammates. Anyone who leaves this fight early because they made a personal choice that changed their medical status—or contributes to doing that to another—is not in keeping with a key element of our ethos."
My questions are: Why the jail time? Why the disgrace? What if your birth control fails?
What do you think about the Major General's rule?
Related posts:
Pregnant Women Discriminated Against in the Workplace
Discrimination During Pregnancy on the Rise
Military Families: A Deployed Hubby Will Miss the Birth
Comments (9)
I have mixed feelings about this my hubby is in the USMC and he deploys with no women because with the kind of unit he's in, but there are women on the base when they're in Iraq and he told me some stories and I just think if your a women in the military & your deployed you need to be on birth control you know that you have an obligation, if you want children then plan for after your return.It's a sacrifice, just like any other when it comes to military life.Do I think you should go to jail? No but I do think if your in a unit and your not carrying your weight then you should be in trouble just as a guy would for fraternization or doing something that could risk there unit
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Keep your pants on while you're deployed.
Yikes! I think it is a bit harsh. Birth control is not 100%!
I'm in the military and I've been to Iraq. I don't know about other branches, but in the Air Force and they have very strict rules about males and females even going in each other's living quarters. It is forbidden, plain and simple. As is engaging in sexual intercourse, or other sexual acts. Therefore, if a woman gets pregnant in Iraq, both she and the male who got her pregnant are disobeying a direct order... if you don't want to follow orders, don't take the oath or take the out you're going to get. It may sound harsh, but I don't want the person sitting next to me so focused on who they are hooking up with tonight that their head isn't in the game. When you're deployed, just do your job and worry about getting laid when we get home and I am safe in the arms of my family again.
I'm with toriandgrace and McDrish on this one :)
While in a deployed status anyone military member that gets pregnant should be punished. I'm in the navy and was in a deployable status but was not deployed when I got pregnant hence that does not apply to me however I do believe that if you are deployed especially in an active war zone whether on the ground or on a ship keep your panties on and wait til you go home. If you get pregnant while on leave then there should be less punishment. However if your command/company/squadron is counting on you and you wind up pregnant while on deployment you are disobeying a direct order. However if you are on deployment and find out that you are pregnant and the doctor can prove that you got pregnant before you went on deployment that is a completely different situation. This is not discrimination against Pregnancy its an attempt to keep much needed people in the positions they were trained to fill instead of leaving those positions empty.
Civilian rules do not apply to the military. If the Major General says don't get pregnant then don't. You don't need to be having sex in a war zone at all. Keeping yourself and your comrades safe while completing the mission is the first priority.
In the military, while being deployed, you are on the job for 24/7. One shouldn't have sex while on the job. Feminist or not, pregnancy renders one useless in deployment. It costs the unit valuable numbers. I can see why this would be implemented. I'm glad to see that it is for both women and men.
i agree, you should be punished. you know the rules, so follow them!