Pregnancy Equals Jail Time For American Soldiers In Iraq

For US soldiers serving in Iraq, becoming pregnant or impregnating someone can lead to jail time.

This policy has been put into effect because the pregnant woman will obviously have a negative impact on the mission and need to be removed and replaced.

Now I definitely think she should be removed and replaced; a battlefield is no place for a pregnant woman. But jail? This crosses the line.

Accidents happen. Condoms break. People get drunk. Women will become pregnant while they are working in Iraq and there’s not much that can be done about this.

The reason this policy scares me is that Uncle Sam is forcing these couples to hide the pregnancy for as long as they can, thus causing undue distress on the pregnant woman’s body and the fetus and possible miscarriage.

Or, heaven forbid, these women will feel like they must have an abortion, something they might not consider in any other circumstances.

Surely the US military doesn’t want to be seen as pro-abortion?! This will inevitably happen if people begin to be jailed because there won’t be much other option for these women. I think the best people to have some influence in changing this policy are the American Christian Right and, for once in my life, I am going to say that I hope they are successful.

Men and women who become pregnant do not deserve jail. Remove the women from service until the baby is born? Fine. But this is not right and needs to be addressed before any innocent lives are risked simply because of the arrogance of the military bosses.