U.S. Military Cracks Down on Soldiers Making Babies While on Duty in Iraq

Female soldiers who fall pregnant, and the male soldiers who help them to conceive, while on active duty in Iraq will soon be facing jail time. On Friday, the Army announced that soldiers under the command of Major General Anthony Cucolo, who commands forces in northern Iraq, would be subject to prosecution if they became pregnant. Male soldiers impregnating female service members could also be court-martialed.

The new rule is supposedly aimed at reducing attrition, as pregnant soldiers are usually shipped back home within 14 days.

Maj. Lee Peters, a spokesman for the Army said:

"The redeployment of the pregnant soldier creates a void in the unit and has a negative impact on the unit's ability to accomplish its mission. Another soldier must assume the pregnant soldier's responsibilities."

Cucolo adds:

"I've got a mission to do. I'm given a finite number of soldiers with which to do it and I need every one of them. So I'm going to take every measure I can to keep them all strong, fit and with me for the twelve months we are in the combat zone."

The new policy is already making waves and setting off alarms. Military law professor Eugene Fidell points out:

"Here you really have issues that go to the core of personal integrity: reproductive rights."

Adding further to the alarming nature of such a policy, it also has a number of upsetting implications including the fact that enforcement will likely disproportionately affect women, as it is far easier to tell who's pregnant than who impregnated her. There are also no provisions for instances of rape, in which case a woman could potentially be raped, and then punished for being raped if she fell pregnant.

Also complicating matters is the fact that military bases are not required to provide emergency contraception and abortions are banned at military hospitals. So those women who fall pregnant have no choice but to remain pregnant as well.

The military's solution, instead, is to promote total abstinence, which let's face it, is entirely unrealistic. Cucolo's policy also prohibits soldiers from having sex with Iraqis or from spending the night with a member of the opposite sex unless married or granted explicit permission. Instead, the military might fare better if they provided reliable access to birth control for soldiers, both male and female.