Pregnant US Troops in Iraq Could Face Jail Time

(Dec. 20) -- Members of the U.S. military who become pregnant while serving in northern Iraq now face the possibility of a court-martial or jail time, Stars and Stripes newspaper reports.

Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III, who oversees the area that includes Kirkuk, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra, set a policy in place last month that makes pregnancy a punishable offense.

The rule applies to anyone who becomes pregnant or impregnates another service member, even if they are married.

Standard military policy calls for a pregnant soldier to be removed from the battle area within two weeks.

The northern Iraq policy, which was reviewed by military attorneys, takes that a step farther.

"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," Army spokesman Maj. Lee Peters told the newspaper.

The policy has drawn fierce criticism. Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School, told London's Daily Mail newspaper that it poses serious ethical questions.

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

Cucolo has defended the policy, calling it a "black and white issue."

"I've got a mission to do," he said. "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."

Read more at the Stars and Stripes and the Daily Mail.