Military to ditch policy punishing pregnant soldiers.

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/24/military-pregnant-end/

As of Nov. 4, active-duty soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo — who is responsible for operations in northern Iraq — have faced possible punishment if they either become pregnant or impregnate a fellow servicemember. The policy said that they could even receive jailtime, although Cucolo has said that he never intended to put pregnant women in prison. The policy was harshly criticized by women’s rights advocates, including U.S. senators. Reuters reports that Gen. Ray Odierno, Commanding General Multi-National Force in Iraq, said today that he would be lifting Cucolo’s rules:

General Ray Odierno said the new, Iraq-wide guidelines would take effect beginning January 1, lifting rules enacted by the U.S. commander in northern Iraq, who reports to Odierno, that laid out possible punishments for pregnancy among his soldiers.

“That will not be in my orders from January 1,” Odierno told Reuters on the sidelines of a seminar in Baghdad, responding to a question about whether possible punishment for soldiers who become pregnant or impregnate other soldiers would be part of new, Iraq-wide guidelines Odierno plans to issue shortly.

According to U.S. policy now, individual commanders can issue rules on behavior for troops under their command that are more strict than those issued by their military superiors.


Military to scrap pregnancy punishment
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BN2D620091224

[Cirque du So-What]

1. As of yesterday, NPR was still reporting

that Gen. Cucolo still intended to enforce his ban against soldiers getting pregnant. Although Cucolo claims that jail was not a possibility, any non-judicial punishment could be detrimental to a soldier's career.

Even though commanders can issue rules more strict than for those coming from their own superiors, those rules must first be lawful, and I'm not that this rule on pregnancy is lawful (although I'm not a lawyer - much less one trained in military law).

[sarge43]

2. There's an old saying among career noncoms:

Don't issue an order you can't reasonably enforce; the troops will ignore it and you'll look like a fool.

That man is an idiot or impossibly naive. Twenty somethings in a horribly high stress situation, getting shot at (guaranteed to jack the hormones) with nothing else to do are going to refrain from the wild thang in fear of a letter of reprimand.

:rofl: unless they're totally different than any other soldiers in history. As said before, when retreat is sounded mother-to-be will still have to be sent home. Yeah, that works well.

"The floggings will continue until morale improves."

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. They missedt the intent

The general's intent was to punish those who intentionally get pregnant to avoid deploying or remaining on deployment.

[sarge43]

4. And that intent is determined just how?

Unless the general goes draconian, ie general court with considerable jail time and minimum bad conduct discharge, the choice between a slap on the wrist or third/fourth deployment to a war zone won't be that tough. If, for argument's sake, that was her intention. And he'll still have a hole in the manning roster.

Still haven't heard how this surge of pregnancies is harming mission objectives. Has any unit failed to complete an objective because of them as opposed to other 'disciplinary' problems?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Have you read the prior threads on this topic here?

Several have contained the general's statement in its totality. Its worth looking at.

[sarge43]

6. Yes I have which is why I still have these questions. n/t