TeenHelp - Pregnant soldiers won't be court-martialed, commander says

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/22/ira...ncy/index.html

The commander who instituted a policy cracking down on pregnancy among soldiers defended it Tuesday as necessary to maintain troop strength, but said no soldier would ever be court-martialed for violating the directive.
The policy -- which would punish soldiers who get pregnant or impregnate another soldier -- was included in Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo's orders to troops regarding conduct while deployed under his command in northern Iraq.
Cucolo, who has 22,000 people under his command, including 1,682 women, said the policy is meant to make his soldiers "think before they act."
"The main reason why I did this was my intense desire to maintain my fighting strength any way possible in a very tough and complex mission that includes a drawdown," he told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. "The consequence of them departing early is they're leaving their team, their unit, shorthanded with their special skills."
The specific rule in the general order prohibits "becoming nondeployable for reasons within the control of the soldier," which includes "becoming pregnant, or impregnating a soldier ... resulting in the redeployment of the pregnant soldier."
Pregnancy that arises from sexual assault would not be punished, Cucolo said.
The directive applies to all military and civilians serving under Cucolo in northern Iraq, an area that includes Balad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra, according to the Web site of Multi-National Force Iraq.