This article in Newsday discusses the problems military women overseas are facing re: pregnancy and abortion. As far as I can tell:



1) 5 to 6 percent of Army women are pregnant at any given time.



2) Women stationed overseas are allowed access to birth control, but are told if it fails they would be given a "harsh punishment." No mention made on the guy being in trouble.



3) However, the guys might bear some responsibility here, other than the obvious "two to tango" - there were 1,012 reported sexual assaults of service members in 2003 and 901 in 2002:



"The Miles Foundation, which assists servicewomen and female military dependents who have been victims of violence and sexual assault, has handled 187 sexual assault cases involving soldiers stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Bahrain, said Kate Summers, the foundation's director of victim services. It now is working with three servicewomen who were impregnated by the same senior officer in Kuwait, she said."



4) The focus of the article was on the fact these women have no access to an abortion: the same military hospitals that are allowed to give free boob jobs are prohibited from paying for abortions even in cases of rape.



My questions:



So what exactly are they doing about this? I'd imagine a pregnancy might be somewhat of a hinderance when running through the desert after an escaped terrorist. You've put them in the middle of nowhere, with no option to pop over to the nearest private-sector medical provider, and no plan for what might happen?



Were the 1,012 reported sexual assault victims told they'll face "harsh punishment" if a pregnancy results?



And in cases of consensual sex, are the men getting off (pun intended) scott-free? If we're going to have men and women serving together, shouldn't both sexes be treated the same?