Should a pregnant woman's choice to or to not conceive a child be decided by anyone other than the pregnant woman?
This age-old debate has taken an interesting shift as of late:
U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq now face court-martial if they become pregnant or impregnate another soldier. The long-standing policy once removed pregnant servicewomen from combat within two weeks. But the new policy makes it a punishable offense, even for married couples.
Army Major General Anthony Cucolo, the man who enacted the ban Nov. 4, argues that service members should put their love lives "on hold" while serving in a combat zone.
Cucolo, who commands American operations in northern Iraq, explained in several publications that he instituted the ban because he was losing too many women with critical skills.
"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," Cucolo was quoted in the military publication Stars and Stripes.
Of Cucolo's 22,000 soldiers 1,682 are women.
The policy is not limited to women. Cucolo acknowledges, "Men who break this rule are subject to the same punishments."
Since the new policy has been in force, four women soldiers were redeployed because they had become pregnant in violation of Cucolo's order. The four women and three male soldiers (one of the pregnant women declined to identify the person who got her pregnant) received letters of reprimand that will not remain in their permanent military files.
Four Democratic senators - Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York - have written a letter to the Army general asking him to retract this order.
"We can think of no greater deterrent to women contemplating a military career than the image of a pregnant woman being severely punished simply for conceiving a child," the senators wrote.
Besides these four female senators, Cucolo's decision has triggered outrage among many women's groups.
For example, the National Organization for Women (NOW) called the policy "ridiculous."
"How dare any government say we're going to impose any kind of punishment on women for getting pregnant," NOW President Terry O'Neill was quoted in an online ABCNews article. "This is not the 1800s."
An old co-worker, friend of mine, Army National Guard E4 Specialist Amanda Sleasman, has a different opinion about Cucolo's order. She has heard of female soldiers intentionally planning pregnancies to relieve themselves of duty (the military does consider this a form of "malingering" - an army term for a soldier who injures him- or herself to prevent dangerous assignments).
"I think women should not be able to walk away unpunished if she is trying to use pregnancy as a 'get out of jail free card,'" she explained. "Plus, this general is not just targeting women, he is targeting both sexes who are having unprotected sex."
Sleasman connoted support that the new rule applies to wives and husbands also.
"Birth control and condoms are given out like candy ... there should be no pregnancies happening," she said.
She went on to explain that unprotected sex in the military is against contract to begin with.
"This is because if you are overseas on duty it hinders the overall mission," she said. "Every solider takes an oath to protect their country, and stay in good health and standing to do so."
So again, should a pregnant woman's choice to or to not conceive a child be decided by anyone other than the woman?
Taking into account all sides of this issue, I argue "no" and "yes."
"No": Although there can be many shades of gray about right and wrong situations, in the "real world" no one should tell a woman how to manage her body.
"Yes": The military is a very different world. Female and male soldiers sign contracts to be controlled and conditioned to be part of a team in order to protect America. When a team member is randomly taken out of the equation, the whole team is put at risk.
Additionally, Cucolo's ban punishes women and men, which is a progressive step forward when it comes to equality. Yet, he needs to be sure that all the fathers are, indeed, punished.
Overall, war is no time to make babies ... hence the plethora of birth control options for both sexes. Whether a woman is malingering, or mommy and daddy are together making a personal decision to start a family, both are selfish decisions that should be punished.
Sarah T. Schwab is a Sunday OBSERVER contributor. Visit her Web site at www.SarahTSchwab.com and send comments to editorial@observertoday.com