Yesterday Hillary Clinton reintroduced legislation to ensure EC access on military bases for U.S. servicewomen at home and abroad. A companion bill has been introduced in the house by Reps. Mike Michaud and Chris Shays. (Democrats made a run at passing this legislation back in May, to no avail.)
This is pretty damn important, especially considering that sexual assault of servicewomen has gone up considerably in the past two years:
Current Department of Defense policy does not require EC to be available at all health care facilities. In fact, current availability of EC is up to the discretion of each individual facility. According to the Pentagon, the number of reported sexual assaults in the military increased approximately 24 percent in 2006 – nearly 3000 incidents were reported in 2006 compared to almost 2400 in 2005. Given this unfortunate spike in reports of sexual assault cases in the military, access to EC is needed now more than ever. The Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act simply ensures that EC is available at all facilities for our servicewomen.
Clinton mentioned the legislation in her speech to Planned Parenthood last night, where she also spoke out against China's one-child policy, the Global Gag Rule, and forced pregnancy in Romania.
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I think it's a slap in teh face to deny our servicewomen basic reproductive healthcare services and drugs at military facilities. These women are fighting for our country for Christ's sake, and the only thanks they get for it is a "Sorry you were raped, but you don't get to have EC. You may have served your country, but we still don't care if you were raped and end up getting pregnant." That just makes me sick!!
I would like to add that EC should be available to all servicewomen, not just those that were raped. OF COURSE it should be available to rape victims, but it should be available to every person who wants it (especially considering that it is a safe, legal, FDA-approved drug). I wish politicians would stop backing off of that point. Having consensual sex should not deprive you of the opportunity to procure a safe, legal drug to prevent an unplanned pregnancy.
EC, yes, should be available by all means, for all the reasons Jordan and KP suggest and more. But let me go back to the specific argument about assault victims again - there were THREE THOUSAND **reported** incidents of sexual assault in the US military in ONE YEAR?!
I would like to clarify one of the possible reasons that reported sexual assaults increased to dramatically in the past two years. In Jan 2005 the DoD revealed new all-service sexual assault prevention and response guidelines. One of these new guidelines required that victims be given the option of "restricted" reporting, where they could seek medical care and speak to mental health services without automatically triggering an investigation. Because sexual assault is a violation of UCMJ, military personnel are required to report these crimes to the chain of command. Also, the last policy required that an investigation was automatically triggered, whether or not the victim wanted one or not. According to David Chu, DoD Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, "Our consultations have shown us that our current reporting procedures and our current investigation procedures, although well intentioned, have not been as successful as we would like and it has not been as sensitive to addressing the needs of victims. The lack of privacy and confidentiality were service members to report a sexual assault without triggering an investigation has in many instances proven to be a barrier to encouraging victims to come forward, for a host of reasons, including intimidation, embarrassment and the fear of ruining one's reputation." (http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1628) Granted, those reasons are pretty damn sad regardless. I still think it's good that a female (or male) servicemember can now seek care without having an automatic investigation. It's difficult enough for women in the civilian world to report, but it's often downright frightening for women in the still-very-male-dominated world of the military.
Oh, and to clarify, in case it wasn't totally clear in my long circuitous post; because rape victims in the military can now report confidentially w/out triggering an investigation, a higher percentage are probably reporting that wouldn't have reported before (reason for stats changng in the last two years).