Get pregnant and face a court-martial?

I think that the court-martial should be for trying to avoid deployment, not for getting pregnant. Also, unless EVERY male in the service has to have a DNA record on file, to be matched up against a potential pregnancy, I think that the women are going to be disproportionately prosecuted for this. If this is an accidental pregnancy (true birth control failure), then I don't think that it should be a court-martial offense, but I DO think that the tour of duty should be extended, and if the daddy is another soldier, he gets his tour extended by the same amount.

I'm well aware that there have been problems with people joining the service, getting paid, getting benefits, and possibly an education, and then suddenly discovering that they're conscientious objectors. I agree that some people try to get out of their obligation, and that the people in charge have to try to reduce this if possible. However, from the source, it appears that a grand total of four women, out of 1,682, have become pregnant in a month. Is this a large enough number to justify a new policy? I don't know.

I do know, however, that the military strongly disapproves of homosexual activity, by either sex. And last I heard, women were not able to obtain elective abortions from military medical sources. Encouraging homosexual (or at least lesbian) sexual behavior and/or allowing women to get elective abortions at military medical facilities would do more to alleviate this problem, I think, than enforcing this policy. Making abortions MANDATORY for those women who become pregnant while deployed would do even more. No, it won't happen, but it's a better solution that this one is.

I also note that this general will be the only one who determines who gets court-martialed and who doesn't. I suspect that he has a problem with female soldiers, and I suspect that he has an agenda to carry out, beyond his stated one.

Edited to add: Getting tubes tied is not really a solution. For one thing, getting the tubes tied is PERMANENT, it can't just be used for a year and then the woman is fertile again. While there are some very, very rare cases of women being able to get their tubes re-opened, tubal ligation is considered permanent. For that reason, most doctors won't perform tubals on younger women, even if the woman signs all sorts of legal documents. They won't even discuss the issue! And I've been in the military medical system...sometimes they have doctors who don't want to give out birth control, even to married women, and the women have no other place to get birth control.

I've read this story from several sources, and some of them have different spins on things. I read the story so closely, in fact, that I can spell the guy's name (Cucolo) correctly, and I know that the "eight soldiers involved" means four women and four men. Four women got pregnant. While it's admirable for him to punish the males as well as the females, I wonder if he would do so if PR didn't demand it.

I only play for one team too...that is, if my sexual choices were restricted to either other women or my own hands, my hands would win every time. However, since gay and lesbian activity is so forbidden in the military, I think that they should get over themselves, and acknowledge that this is the way some people are. And I think that having mandatory abortions would solve the problem completely, no court-martials needed.

By the way, court-martial means "court of war". Martial means "of or pertaining to war", and the military does "courts of war" because it has different laws and rules than civilian court.

And another little thing. I don't have any Es in my name. It's Lynn, not Lynne. It's a very small thing, but I HATE it when people spell my name as Lynn.

Well...it does say "getting pregnant or impregnating a fellow soldier" so it looks like males would be held accountable as well.

Plus no ones really suppose to be fraternizing...and in such a position to be able to get pregnant. Military is very anti-sex.

It's a hard call really....every military member Knows they have remain deployable. It's in the contract and lordy we hear it often enough.

Should a military member do something On Purpose to make themselves non deployable they can face a court martial, such as taking a 2x4 to their own leg so they cant leave.

Now if this broken leg was caused by an accident, then no they wouldn't get in trouble just be patched up and sent when healed.

If they where to handle the 'pregnancy" issue in a similar way...separating the accidents from the intentional 'getting out of depolyment" I wouldnt see a real issue with that.

Washington (CNN) -- A new order from the general in charge of U.S. troops in northern Iraq makes getting pregnant or IMPREGNATING a fellow soldier an offense punishable by court-martial. If this law is carried out correctly, the man would be sent home too, and if he wasn't, well that's breaking the law.

NOTE to Lynne Bodoni: All service members' DNA is on file. Male and female. In case you die, and are otherwise un-indentifiable, they can figure out who you were. And who wants to keep a pregnant woman in a combat zone?

EDIT: I only play for one team, I'm not interested in changing teams for any reason......I don't think encouraging lesbian sex is going to solve anything for most people in the sandbox. I don't have a problem with gay people, I'm just not gay.

If you and Tit for Tat read the article, you will note 3 things: 1. MG Ciulo has lost 8 female service members, 2. He states he needs every last service member under his command because he doesn't have enough, and 3. Males have already received punishment under him for impregnanting female service members. They just haven't court martialed one yet.

2nd EDIT: Its not that simple. The military spent $130,000 getting me from the recruiters' office to basic training graduation. That doesn't begin to touch on the medical care and training I've had since then. If I have to go home early

because I was careless and became pregnant, then I take all my knowledge, expertise and training with me. And that leaves the personnel behind to pick up the slack. . . .not so much fun when there are people shooting at you. On a side note, my basic training flight started with 58 women, we graduated 34. We lost two in tech school....so only 32 actually made it to active duty.

Birth Control is not the problem. I can get any birth control I desire, whether its the pill, ring, diaphram, depo, you name it I can get it, even in Iraq. What you can't ensure is that I will use it correctly or at all. The whole thing about leading a horse to water thing.

I think you might have a better understanding of what we do, if you joined....this is not a Monday through Friday, 8-5 job. We are on duty 24/7/365. Even the women.

They offer FREE BIRTH CONTROL at all clinics and they will tie your tubes for FREE but not al women want that, I tied my tubes, I think the thing is too many women are gettign pregnant and therefore there are too many single parent females and in war and back at the unti too many exceptions have to be made for them, daycare hours are from 0630-1830 and that is all. They may feel women in the military are tryign to get out of deployments ar eare not taking proper percautions when having sex and neither are the men!!! so all are being inmature and just getting pregnant and now th emilitary has to pay for an extra dependant and send the mom home.

I sure hope that nobody is joining the military. Don't they have enough control over people with the fears they impose on people? The bottom line is America is prosperous because of our natural resources and our natural love, you don't get rid of evil by contributing to it.

And yet rape does NOT always get you court marshaled... SAD.

On the other hand, women get the shot before going to the zone, so they are technically punishing people for the failure of a govt. administered drug.

Plus this means male solders will more likely have sex, forced or not with natives instead of their fellow solders, which means more half ling babies, that are considered to be sub human, and damaged goods, as are their mothers for having an American solder. Those people will be at risk of pubic harm, or cultural killings.

Women are essentially barred from sex all together, because if their drug fails, they will be punished regardless of who the father is. That is not fair to the women.

(Yes I know that technically no one is meant to have sex, but they all do and everyone knows it.)

I can see saying we need our troops to finish their tours, but this is not the right way to address this issue. It is sexist and unfair to all of the troops, and the natives they are supposed to be protecting.

Edit: They said that rape wouldn't count against the woman... so if she doesn't want to get court marshalled it is now in her best interest to claim rape.... Great... That will be good for troops...Ugh! Troops need to be able to trust each other!

I don't see what the big problem is.

Just don't have sex, while deployed.

How hard is that ?

Heck the women know who they are having sex with, she gets pregnant, they order her to tell them the names of the guys she had sex with, they do a dna test on those guys, find the father, and court martial him also.

Hell my dad court martialed a female soldier for getting pregnant at Fort Campbell one time, so she could get out of the military.

She was stupid about it, she went door to door in the barracks, sleeping with a different guy each night, until she got pregnant. Ansd then told people what she was doing.

If you paid attention, it is prosecutable offense, but more then likely it would not go to court marshall. Also the rule is in place to make sure people do not use it as an excuse to shorten their deployments.

I wonder about the married couples stationed together in Iraq. What if they are forbidden by their religion from using contraception?