Betraying my sex on soc.history.what if

[james_davis_nicoll]

Someone on shiw referred to men who find they cannot run away from child support payments thanks to the intervention of the State as "slaves."

It seems to me that if men don't want to pay child support, the most effective strategy is to avoid getting a woman (or women) pregnant. Whining interminably about the injustice of being held accountable for one's actions [1] might be more in keeping with this period's zeitgeist but I don't think it actually accomplishes much of use.

1: I will grant that anyone who can show that a succubus/incubus transfered the sperm from them to the expectant mother without their knowledge or permission has something to complain about.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Um... it has career affects (not least because getting preganant in theater is a violation of General Order 1), but it doesn't affect seniority, because absent a break in service, time in service; time in grade, is a constant factor. One day = one day, irrespective of where you are, or your duty status.

I am unaware of any regulation which stops that (the only exception being that one who is under indictment, after an Article 32 hearing is on hiatus, in that case the outcome of the judicial hearings will determine the new TIG, but has no effect on Time in Service).

Medical Leave (Which I have been on) does not derail those things. Even when (as with me) it was to remove one from a combat theater.

If such a thing is being done (or said to be happening) the service member in question should contact the post IG, or her congressional representative and initiate proceedings to correct the situation.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Oh, trust me, she has been. She's also been getting a massive runaround on all levels as to what is, isn't, can, or can't be policy ... she was effectively forced to carry the fetus to over two months of pregnancy before they let her abort, too, making it a much riskier procedure.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

There are several policies in play (and I'd have responded sooner, but Lj didn't tell me there was an answer).

There is no allowance for pregnacy in a combat zone. At the point she is known to be pregnant she has to be sent home. For reasons rational, and silly, D&C equipment isn't part of the Combat Support Hospital equipment, so even if there weren't questions about rational decision making in a combat zone, she'd have to go back to Germany for the procedure.

Speaking from personal experience, I'd wonder about the decision of a person in the box to make that decision on short notice. I was combat innefective. I was barely job-effective for the rear-echelon aspects of my job, which means I wasn't able to completely pull my weight, as there were parts of my job which really reqiured me to go outside the wire.

Even at that, with orders sending me back to the states I didn't want to leave. So I can see where someone might decide that getting an abortion was the thing to do, lest they leave their pals in the lurch; even when they didn't really want one.

On that level I, mostly, agree with the policy.

Given, however, that this adminstration has made service members (and dependants) jump through huge hoops to get an abortion (e.g. they can't be performed in military facilities) the secondary aspects of making her wait strike me as a policy meant to make it riskier, so that they will be foregone.

But the rest of it, telling her that her TIG is in abeyannce during the medical leave, is utter rubbish, and the IG ought to put paid to it pretty quick. Since TIG can't be suspended without paperwork, the IG has all it needs to quash it, if it's actually been done.