Take one asprin and hold it tight between your knees?
From the Stars and Stripes:
"The rule governs all those serving under Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo III, who commands Multi-National Division-North, including Balad, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Mosul and Samarra. According to the order, it is “applicable to all United States military personnel, and to all civilians, serving with, employed by, or accompanying” the military in northern Iraq, with few exceptions.
Someone would violate the policy by “becoming pregnant, or impregnating a soldier, while assigned to the Task Force Marne (Area of Operations), resulting in the redeployment of the pregnant soldier,” according to the order.
The policy also applies to married couples who are at war together, Army spokesman Maj. Lee Peters told Stars and Stripes in an e-mail message. Both the husband and wife could face punishment under the policy.
Peters said that, despite the broad wording of the policy, it is meant to apply only when pregnancies affect a unit’s ability to perform its mission.
“When a soldier becomes pregnant or causes a soldier to become pregnant through consensual activity,” Peters said, “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.”
No one has been punished or accused under the new policy, according to Col. David S. Thompson, the inspector general for all soldiers in Iraq.
Military staff judge advocates for both MND-North and Multi-National Force Iraq have reviewed and approved the policy, according to Peters and Thompson.
“It is a lawful order,” Thompson said Friday during a phone interview."
Knowing a little bit about the military, me thinks this is a useful tool, and not a prurient witch hunt by high command Puritans.
It's probably necessary in order to target flighty female soldiers who use pregnancy as an 'out', and the promiscuous scoundrels who willy-nilly wet their willy, resulting in subsequent 'jilted' tensions, which reeks havoc upon unit cohesiveness.
And my guess is no married couple will face any consequences (duh!).
Like the article said, "despite the broad wording of the policy, it is meant to apply only when pregnancies affect a unit’s ability to perform its mission" - and being the Age of Lawyers - such policies have to apply equally and consistently in a non-discriminatory manner to all personnel regardless of age, rank, ethnicity, gender, blah, blah, blah...
That is all. But I'm sure the Lefties will all mess their nappies because - Gaia forbid! - some poor penis or vagina is prohibited from satiating his/her/itself 24/7.
