By Karen Ingram
January 14, 2010
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.
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