You would think that. I enlisted during the late 90’s when there was no war. Many of the people that were joining at that time came in for the college benefits, the job training, or something of that nature. There were not many who came in to go to war.
When the War on Terror began and soldiers were being deployed into harms way, people did try to find a way out of the deployments. Some of my soldiers came up hot on the whiz quiz, others went AWOL. Some females did become pregnant. It really wasn’t the major baby boom that some of the posters here seem to think it would be. And that was for women who knew they were going to combat.
I think that you would have a few women draftees who would rather have an 18-20 year committment to motherhood than to be drafted, but I cannot believe there would be the major population boom that many of the posters here are predicting. Especially since most of the women who would be drafted wouldn’t find themselves in a combat support position anyway.
It’s really difficult to get statistics about women who “call in pregnant.” The military does publish stats on women who voluntarily leave the service due to pregnancy, but they treat stats regarding women leaving the war theater due to pregnancy as “classified.” You’d be really hard pressed to find stats regarding percentages of women who become pregnant just after learning they’re going to be deployed.
There was, in 1991 the destroyer USS Acadia aka “The Love Boat” when 36 sailors — 10 percent of the women aboard — became pregnant while deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm.
As it is in our all-volunteer military, about 15% is female. At any given time, a not-insignificant percentage of those will be pregnant, or on maternity leave. Since women can’t serve in ground combat units (directly), there’s a disproportionate number of women in combat support units. Some units can have as much as 20, 30, maybe even 40% women. These units have to be deployable and yet there are times when up to 30% of a unit’s women are non-deployable due to pregnancy. It presents some interesting challenges preparing to win a war that way.
If there were a draft of women and men equally, you’d have units with over 50% women, and it could happen up to 1/3 are out pregnant. That’s a problem for a smaller, leaner, smarter, faster military that needs to deploy to hotspots around the world on short notice.
Maybe what is needed is anytime there is a draft instituted, any politician who votes for the war, shall personally round up and administer the oath to every eligible relative. Such relative(s) will be required to serve exactly as any other draftee such that charges of favoritism will be false. I’m wondering how many politicians will suddenly discover that more diplomacy is in order before committing the U.S. to war. Maybe if George had to send his own daughters and nieces and nephews to war, he might have decided on other tactics?
You know, I served for three years among hundreds, if not thousands of female soldiers and I don’t remember hearing of a single pregnancy - and I was in a unit famous for its, um, “paramilitary” activities.
I also can’t imagine a girl getting pregnant for the sole purpose of avoiding the draft. What idiot would trade 18 months of service for 18 years of raising a child?
Probably not just to avoid 18 months of service. I’m thinking if there were a draft it would be because we’re engaged in a war that’s not going very well and we need fresh bodies to replace the ones getting killed. Under those conditions, getting drafted gets really scary.
What kind of idiot would get pregnant? What kind of idiot would flee to another country where he’ll quite possibly have to spend the rest of his life, never returning home, just so he can avoid 18 months of service in a war he doesn’t agree with and scares the hell out of him?
People keep making parenthood sound like this awful 18-year-long punishment. I’ve yet to meet a woman who truly regretted being a mom, even if the pregnancy did occur at an inopportune time. They might regret not having finished school, etc; but not being that kid’s mom for 18 grueling, tortuous years.
Throwing in my own situation in case anyone has experience / can answer this for me:
I’m almost 23 years old, pre-op and male-to-female trans. I registered for SS when I was 18, when my name and legal gender were both male. According to the California DMV, I am now female, as is my name; however I have not had SRS, and according to Social Security, I am still male. My name on my SS registration is as it was when I registered.
Inaccuraccies in bookkeeping aside, could I still be drafted? Assuming there was a draft, would they even take someone like me? Passable or not, you’d think it might cause problems in the ranks or something, whichever camp they put me in.