The Associated Press ran a story about a new policy seeking to punish those who become pregnant in Iraq:
A U.S. Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.
The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to both female soldiers who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers who impregnate them.
Comment: On the surface, the policy sounds halfway logical. Service members shouldn't be shacking up on deployment.
There are lots of potential problems with this policy. From a medical perspective, the problem is concerning the role military physicians play in law enforcement. If a service member requests a pregnancy test on a deployment should the physician or other healthcare personnel be required to report it? What would happen if the service member was raped resulting in the pregnancy?
When a service member needs help they need to be able to talk to that chaplain or doctor knowing that their medical information will be private. They may have made a bad choice but with a little help they can learn from their mistakes and be a stronger more reliable service member. Without respect for the patient-doctor relationship, patients won't seek help. The military is almost always better served when a service member's medical privacy is respected.
