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Author: TriSec    Date: 05/10/2022 00:22:55

Good Morning.

Since we're inching towards actual confrontation with Russia, let's talk fallout today.


No, not nuclear fallout. It probably won't come to that unless somebody seriously fucks up, but I digress.

This one lands under the broad category "Law of unintended consequences". Did you know that the US Military is about 14% women? No longer relegated to supporting roles, many women now serve in front-line combat and even fly fighter jets. Allegedly preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States.

In the military, you are not your own person - Uncle Sam owns you. But it is possible to be a conscientious objector and still serve; Just ask Desmond Doss. But this is not about that. As we are aware, all women in the United States are being faced with losing body autonomy, and of course the military would be no exception. What might that mean to our fighting forces?


U.S. troops could see their access to abortion severely curtailed if the Supreme Court overturns its landmark ruling on reproductive rights, potentially hurting military recruitment and the retention of women.

As employees of the federal government, doctors on military bases are already banned from performing abortions so female troops — and the female spouses of troops — must seek out the procedure on their own. That would become much more difficult if the Supreme Court overturns the precedent set in its Roe v. Wade ruling almost five decades ago, as a leaked draft ruling indicates it’s likely to do.

At least 26 states probably would place restrictions on abortion laws, including Texas, Florida and other southern states that have many of the nation’s military bases, according to Sean Timmons, a managing partner at Tulley Rinckey who specializes in military law.

The potential impact on recruitment and retention would come as the military is already struggling to find qualified troops. Women make up almost 20% of the 1.3 million-member active-duty force.

“It places an undue burden on women serving in the military because they are going to have to go through extraordinary lengths to seek fair access to reproductive health care, which they wouldn’t be facing if they hadn’t joined the military, for example, and then been stationed in a state that has very restrictive access,” said Rachel VanLandingham, an associate professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in national security law.

But Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, disputed the idea that new limits on abortions could affect women’s willingness to serve.

“I have seen nothing from the Department of Defense that has led me to believe that access to abortion is a factor in recruiting and retention one way or another,” Inhofe said in a statement.

Defense Department spokesman John Kirby declined to directly address the abortion issue when questioned this week. But he said “the health and well-being of our men and women are paramount concerns of department leadership,” and “we are serious about making sure they have the information, the tools that they need to make the most informed decisions for their own personal health and well-being.”

“Of course we cannot be an effective military without the brave women who serve inside the military, and who serve in the civilian ranks,” he told reporters.

Military medical facilities aren’t allowed to perform abortions — and the cost of the procedure in private facilities isn’t covered by the military’s Tricare health insurance — because of the Hyde Amendment of 1976, which prohibits the use of federal dollars for abortions unless the life of the mother is at risk.

Women can ask to be discharged from the military if they are pregnant, according to Timmons.


There is a dark undercurrent in our military. In 2020, a soldier named Vanessa Guillen was raped and murdered at Fort Hood, Texas while on active duty. There was a coverup, and the investigation is still ongoing. Her family, understandably is still demanding answers.


Khawam, who has represented military personnel in the past, says she helped strategize with the Guillen family in their effort to change military procedure on sexual misconduct through legislation.

In 2018, Khawam represented Marine Richard Stayskal, who suffers from a fatal form of lung cancer that military doctors should have detected years earlier, he claims, leading to Congress granting service members the right to file medical malpractice claims against Department of Defense health care providers in the 2020 NDAA.

Khawam was able to apply some of the tactics she learned on Capitol Hill during the Stayskal case—like convincing lawmakers that supporting the cause could be mutually beneficial—to a new effort, one the Guillen’s were eager to take part in.

Legislators and the Department of Defense (DOD) have long known that sexual assault and harassment in the military is a prevalent issue. According to DOD estimates, 135,000 active duty service members have been sexually assaulted in the last 11 years, 509,000 have experienced sexual harassment during the same period.


I believe this still speaks volumes about the treatment of women in the military as well as society as a whole. Look, I am the owner-operator of a penis. There is no right or benefit that I gain in society by this ownership, except that society tells me that there is. I remain unable to process the vast parts of the country that use the possession of a particular sex-organ to force whatever religious or moral beliefs that only they posses upon the rest of us.

Preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution should be an easy thing, but like everything else in this day and age, it becomes more divisive the more we ponder it.
 

2 comments (Latest Comment: 05/10/2022 14:06:27 by wickedpam)
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Comment by Will_in_LA on 05/10/2022 13:56:20
Good morning, bloggers!!!!

Trisec, I think that for too many politicians, this goes beyond their stated religious beliefs into the area of power and control. Too many men and some women view many modern woman as having stepped outside of their "place." This place seems to be based on some idealized version of America's past.

While we cannot change the past, it is up to us to decide what present and future we make.



Comment by wickedpam on 05/10/2022 14:06:27
Morning :hug:

God it still feel weird to be home on a Tuesday.