Written by Linsay Rousseau, Media Affairs Director for Continue To Serve
As a woman who served in the military, I am a statistic. I was part of the 16.5% of women who make up the armed forces. I was one of numerous women who joined the military to escape an abusive relationship. I was one of the over 20,000 active duty service members who was sexually assaulted while serving. I was part of the 2/3rds of survivors (3/4ths according to other studies) who never reported their assault out of fear of retribution and derailing their careers. I got out of the Army in 2007 and have never talked about this publicly until this moment. In the military, you get used to being a faceless pawn. To those making the decisions, you are just a number in their PowerPoint presentations concerning “military readiness” and “boots on the ground.” They care more about their expensive jets and ships than they do the expendable “troops.” Do you know how many service members were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (without Googling)? Don’t worry, your elected representatives don't either. Once again, servicemembers are suffering because of the decisions of a conservative minority. Gutting Roe v. Wade not only betrays all American women, but specifically and disproportionately women in the armed forces.
Join us June 4th on the steps of the Supreme Court to stand up for abortion rights: www.vets4choice.com
Over half of female servicemembers report sexual harassment and women are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed in combat. I was one of the lucky ones though. I didn’t get pregnant. When I got to my unit, I had an amazing Army doctor who suggested getting an IUD. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. But many women have never heard of IUDs (I certainly hadn’t heard of them before). According to a 2017 study by Ibis Reproductive Health, “servicewomen have a higher rate of unintended pregnancy than civilian women (almost 40% higher).” The same study reported that pre-deployment counseling on birth control was often lacking and some women were prescribed birth control methods that required refills, which weren’t always easy to obtain. In a 2018 survey, Ellen Haring, director at the Service Women’s Action Network, found that only 74% of active duty servicewomen had access to their preferred method of birth control while deployed. Many women also felt discouraged from seeking birth control because of the prohibitions around sexual activity and their fear of reprimand. In a 2013 Contraception study by Grindlay Kelly (MSPH, project director at Ibis Reproductive Health overseeing the Free the Pill project), one survey respondent who served in Iraq in 2008 stated, “We were directed not to have sex, so birth control was not a conversation.” This is a huge oversight, as most women seek hormonal contraception primarily to suppress their periods during deployment, but it also ignores the large percentage of women who are sexually assaulted in the military.
The failure to provide women in the military adequate resources and protections is a recipe for disaster. Currently, neither the military nor the VA provide or cover abortion, except in the case of rape, incest or if the mother as at risk. In fact, a law put in place by Congress in 1995 makes it so women can’t even use their own money to pay for an abortion on base. The gutting of Roe v. Wade will have a devastating effect on female servicemembers and military readiness. Twenty six states have laws indicating that they intend to ban abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Nine states have pre-Roe bans that could potentially be enforced if the ruling is overturned. The 13 states that currently have trigger laws in place (laws that would automatically ban abortion in the first two trimesters should Roe v Wade be overturned federally) are home to 77 major military bases, including my former unit, the 101st Airborne Division, and the storied 1st Calvary Division.
Many of the military women surveyed in the Ibis study said their career was the primary reason they sought an abortion. “The military makes it easy for you to have kids, but not easy for you to not have kids,” one Air Force officer told the researchers. Servicemembers don’t get to choose what state they serve in. Currently, servicewomen who have sought abortions paid out of pocket (often the amount of an entire paycheck) and had to travel to clinics that could be hours away from their base. If they are stationed in states where abortion is outlawed, that would mean taking days off from work and traveling out of state, something they can’t do without approval from their chain of command and for which you must give a reason. And what happens if you’re stationed or deployed overseas? Mail order abortion pills would also be difficult if living on base or deployed, as mail goes through the chain of command and there are inspections to prevent the receipt of contraband. Were I living in a future era where IUDs have been banned, I could have gotten pregnant following my rape, thus ending my deployment and potentially my career.
Just this month, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and seven Democrats wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin asking him to “consider implementing policy changes that allow servicemembers to obtain [special permission] in order to travel out of state for reproductive healthcare and abortions if they are stationed in a jurisdiction that curtails these rights…The men and women who join the military sacrifice an incredible amount in order to serve their country.” The letter went on to say, “We owe it to these servicemembers to look after them and ensure they have the ability to continue accessing safe reproductive healthcare no matter where in the nation their military service sends them.” Republicans are conspicuously missing from this letter.
The Guttmacher Institute, writing about the issue in 2010, noted that "public funding of abortion at military facilities was available, albeit with some limitations, for military personnel and their dependents during much of the 1970s." But in 1978, Congress decided that Department of Defense funds couldn’t be used to provide abortions. The ban on abortions in military facilities was first put into place in 1988 with an internal DOD memorandum and was signed into law by President George Bush. In 1993, President Clinton reversed the policy by executive order, but Congress intervened two years later to codify and reinstate the ban. In 2013, the Shaheen Amendment allowed abortions to be covered by military insurance in the case of rape or incest. But as we noted above, only 1/3rd (or 1/4th in other studies) of servicewomen report their rapes. Out of the 20,000 servicemembers who were sexual assaulted in 2019, there were only 6,290 reports. Only 50 of those reports led to sex-offense convictions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). That’s roughly 0.8% of cases if you’re doing the math.
In 2013, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA), which included a policy that granted leave for reproductive-health travel. It stalled in the Senate. It took the brutal murder of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén to prompt legislators to finally act. In April 2020, Guillén was stationed at Ft. Hood where she disappeared. Her remains were discovered in June and her murderer committed suicide after fleeing base. Then-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy created an independent review panel to study the command climate at Fort Hood. The panel identified major flaws with SHARP (Sexual Harassment and Rape Program) and a command climate that was permissive of sexual harassment and assault. The Army investigation that looked into the handling of Guillén’s case found that she had been sexually harassed by a supervisor and leadership in her unit failed to take proper actions.
The “I Am Vanessa Guillén Act'' was introduced by a bipartisan group of more than 100 congress people in 2020. Under this, each military branch would be required to create a position of chief prosecutor who has significant experience prosecuting sexual assault trials by court martials. In 2021, Sen. Gillibrand introduced a revised bill, the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act (MJIIPA) that would cover far more offenses than the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act. Under this, the authority to convene a court martial after an alleged covered offense would be transferred from commanding officers to JAG officers outside the chain of command who have significant experience with court martial trials. As of April 29th, 2021, this bill sits in the Armed Services Committee. Despite having 66 co-sponsors, her bill has been blocked from consideration on the floor of the Senate by the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. As Gillibrand said on the floor of the Senate in 2021, “I asked for a vote in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and I was denied every single time.” This is unacceptable.
The fear of retribution and its freezing effect on reporting in the military should not be underestimated. According to a study by Sara Kintzle, associate research professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families, 43% of women who were assaulted and made a report said the experience of reporting was negative. 21% said the experience of reporting was negative and they were met with attempts to deter them. A 2014 DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) report cited the RAND Military Workplace Study which found that 62% of respondents who reported sexual assault experienced some form of retaliation after to a military authority. Military service members who reported sexual assault were 12 times more likely to suffer retaliation for doing so than to see their offended, if also a service member, convicted for a sex offense. You can see why women often feel betrayed by their chain of command and are hesitant to report.
On February 26th, 2021, at the direction of President Biden, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks established a 90 day Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment in the Military. The IRC released their recommendations in July of 2021 and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin accepted all of them. One change is that commanders will no longer be charged with prosecuting those suspected of committing sexual assault. Austin directed that the department work with Congress to change the UCMJ in such a way as to shift responsibility from military commanders for prosecuting sexual assaults and related crimes. They plan to create dedicated offices within each military service to take over the role. However, this requires congressional approval, something that has failed thus far, as we saw illustrated above with Gillibrand’s legislation. The Secretary also directed the military services to create professional career paths for lawyers and investigators to specialize in the handling of sexual assault cases. The IRC also recommended shifting sexual assault coordinators and victim advocates out of the command structure. In September 2021, the DOD announced its roadmap strategy to act on these recommendations. The deputy secretary said DOD will “make foundational investments to support sexual assault accountability, prevention programs, healthy command climates and quality victim care.”
That brings us to December 2021, when Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2022. This included a new section to the UCMJ that mandates the secretaries of each military branch promulgate regulations for detailing JAG officers as special trial counsel. A STC has exclusive authority to determine whether reported offenses are covered offenses over which a STC would have exclusive authority in determining whether to convene a court martial. This takes effect late 2023. The NDAA also amends the UCMJ by defining what constitutes a covered offense, including rape and other sexual misconduct as well as sexual harassment. Many were not happy with this move. Sen. Gillibrand criticized that the “House and Senate Armed Services leadership have gutted our bipartisan military justice reforms behind closed doors.” One of the primary concerns is that court martial convening authority was not removed from commanding officers. Army Lt. General (Ret) Thomas Spoehr said removing commanding officer’s convening authority would result in fewer court martials. However, they offered no actual evidence that reforms would erode commander’s abilities to fight and win wars.
Let’s break this down. The military has known for decades that sexual harassment and assault in the military is a crisis and representatives in Congress have failed at every step to protect female servicemembers by delaying or opposing legislation that would protect them. It took until 2021, following a brutal murder, for the Department of Defense and a President to do anything substantive about the matter and it still falls far short of what experts were requesting. Make no mistake, women in uniform have always faced an uphill battle when it comes to proving they belong in the military. The recent actions of Republicans and the conservative courts will make this even harder. Navy Veteran Allison Gill (host of podcasts Mueller, She Wrote and The Daily Beans), published a recent editorial in the Washington Post stating, “Forcing service members with unwanted pregnancies to covertly seek abortion care - or carry a pregnancy to term - would be inhumane. If the United States values women’s military service, it must find a way to ensure they have a choice.”
And therein lies the question, does the United States value women’s military service? If the Republicans regain power in the midterm elections and SCOUTS reverses Roe v. Wade, the answer is a definitive “no.” Women are on their way to once again becoming second class citizens. This is a slap in the face to every woman in this country and especially all those who have donned a uniform in defense of this country. I took an oath to defend the Constitution. A Constitution that defends the rights of all people in this country. I can’t stand by and watch as a minority of conservatives decide that the Constitution only applies to Christian, white cis males. In his draft opinion on repealing Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” If these people are truly Constitutional Literalists/Originalists, then Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barret wouldn’t even be on the Supreme Court, as the original Constitution did not consider women and people of color to be citizens.
When I was in an abusive relationship, one of my greatest fears was getting pregnant. This man would force himself on me whenever he wanted. He would make me do things I not only pleaded with him not to, but which left lasting scars. On top of all that, he would also hide my medications, causing me to miss vital doses. Despite this, I was lucky that I had access to Plan B, the Morning After Pill, something the forced pregnancy movement is hoping to ban. The reality is that, had I become pregnant and been unable to obtain an abortion, I most likely would have committed suicide. And I know I’m not alone in that sentiment.
When I joined the military, I thought I was finally free. Despite having to work twice as hard to prove myself to my male counterparts, I did just that. I earned their respect and was good at my job. After having survived so much trauma, I didn’t fear combat. As a combat photographer and public affairs sergeant stationed in Iraq from 2005-2006, I was frequently in dangerous situations. But I had already been through hell and back. Combat was nothing compared to what I’d already endured. And then I was raped by a fellow soldier. The safe haven I thought I’d found was destroyed. I dove into my work and shut everything else out. I suppressed and repressed. I told myself I’d been through worse before. Combat was a welcome distraction from the war going on inside my brain. When I got out of the military, I tried to erase it from my mind. I cut off all communication with those I knew and avoided the veteran community. I escaped from Ft. Campbell, KY to Berkeley, CA. I tried to move on with my life. But the scars were always there, buried deep. It took years before I could even talk to another veteran.
The current conflict over Roe v. Wade has brought all those feelings to the surface again. The decades I’ve spent in therapy are being pushed to the limits. I hope no other woman has to go through what I went through, but I know that’s not reality. Women will continue to be abused, raped and find themselves unexpectedly pregnant. The difference between them and me is that I had choices. They won’t. Those who have survived abuse or rape know what it’s like to feel as though you have no control over your body. To have that power stripped away is one of the most debilitating feelings there is. The conservative minority making these decisions is in essence raping all the women of this country by taking away their bodily autonomy. The same people who cried, “My body, my choice,” when protesting COVID vaccines, don’t seem to be aware of the irony in their decision to deny women that same right. Make no mistake, abortion will never go away. Just safe abortions. I refuse to let women be reduced to their wombs. Don’t let Republicans make you a statistic. This is not about being pro-life, because they don’t care about the life of the mother or what happens to that child once its born. This is about power. The power to control women. As a survivor, I will never let that power be taken away again. I will fight until my last breath to make sure no woman is stripped of the right to control their body. Never again.
Join us June 4th on the steps of the Supreme Court to stand up for abortion rights www.vets4choice.com