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A thread on an elephant in a room: abortion & the military. Discussed gingerly in closed military women’s forums, but I haven’t seen it out on Twitter as a leadership issue and maybe it needs to be. 1/
As a leadership issue: military personnel are sometimes going to end up pregnant when they don’t want to be. Law prohibits the use of military medical facilities & Tricare for abortion except in cases of rape & incest. 2/
Not all military medical staff see abortion care as legitimate medical care. If that’s the case, my understanding is that they’re supposed to step aside & let a provider who does treat the patient. Leaders should be aware that this may not always happen, & a servicemember 3/
may have difficulty getting support & care. A supportive leader will step in to advocate for care IAW regs, regardless of their personal feelings about abortion. So where does this leave a servicemember who’s not eligible for abortion care under the existing system? 4/
Out on the economy and out of pocket. In states where abortion care is currently restricted, the servicemember may need to travel to another state for the procedure. A supportive command can make efforts to arrange for 5/
no-cost TAD orders to a base in a location where services are available, & liberally use special liberty (a 96 in USN) instead of making a sailor take leave for recovery, usually a couple of days. 6/
I want to outline 3 circumstances I encountered on active duty in which knowledge of the regs & options mattered, & what compassionate solutions were available. 7/
At my 1st duty station, remote Portuguese island, 18-year-old sailor got pregnant. She came from a very rural home of record & was functionally illiterate—she didn’t know she was pregnant until symptoms were obvs to us & we sent her to medical for a test. 8/
Father claimed baby wasn’t his. When presented w/options, she chose abortion. To make it happen, we got her on a Space A flt to UK base, no-cost TAD, where senior enlisted helped her get care free from UK Nat’l Health Svc. 9/
Will point out here that both the department head (O-5) & CO (O-6) were practicing Catholics who chose to support that sailor in the moment. /10
The 2nd/3rd situations can happen w/military family members as well (if 1st situation occurs w/mil dependent, options for command to support are fewer). In the 2nd, the fetus is found late in pregnancy to be medically nonviable. Will not live, or will live only hours/days. 11/
Families may decide to terminate these much-wanted pregnancies for many, deeply personal reasons. They MUST be supported compassionately. The servicemember or fam member may need to travel /12
to another state. No-cost TAD, time off to grieve the loss, & sensitivity—not judgement—from the chain of command are tools in the commander’s kit & compassion is critical. /14
In the final scenario, the fetus dies in utero & doc may recommend extraction. This procedure can be performed in a couple of ways. The situation is beyond heartbreaking for the family, & the mother may have to wait while arrangements can be made /15
to have the procedure out of state. Same tools in the commander’s toolkit for supporting. I have never seen a grown man cry as hard as the lieutenant whose wife went through this at 7 months & had to wait 5 days & travel. /16
Note: gonna block anybody who wants to argue anti-choice positions w/me. I welcome corrections to anything I don’t know about the instructions (think I’m current, but may have missed some nuances). /17
For those who want to learn more about abortion care, from a factual/medical perspective, I recommend the work of @DrJenGunter. On the emotional impact of loss of a pregnancy, David Chrisinger’s recent essay: thewarhorse.org/reflections-ar… /18
Take care of your troops, w/knowledge & compassion. Life is hard. Service is hard. Don’t make it harder. That is all. 19/x
As a PS, should have said it up front: I need to thank all the senior enlisted women who taught me how to manage these situations compassionately & shared the tools in the toolkit. There were mostly no senior women officers around in these situations & the men just didn’t know.
