by Ti-Grace Atkinson

A few days ago, the Pentagon announced that it was lifting its ban on openly transgendered individuals.

The reason given was the need for qualified persons in a volunteer army. The Pentagon has further committed itself—and its health services—to providing hormone replacement treatments, sexual reassignment surgery, counseling, and breast implants where deemed necessary.

While the Pentagon is at it, in the interests of minimal consistency and fairness, it should change its abortion policy. This too is a medically necessary procedure. The Pentagon has banned paying for abortions or providing these through its health services since 1975. This measure was part of the earliest backlash against the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. The ban on abortions in the military has become increasingly draconian over the years.

The number of unplanned pregnancies is greater in the U.S. military than among the U.S. civilian population (see Feminist Majority report above). In addition, there have been several Congressional Hearings recently devoted to the epidemic of sexual assault in the U.S. military, some of which no doubt result in unwanted pregnancy.

Contraception for women in the military is also limited, whereas the military spends 85 million dollars annually for Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs

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It is clear that the U.S. military, like the Affordable Care Act, is applying double standards as far as providing access to needed medical treatment for all of their participants as well as their dependents. The class of persons deprived of women’s medical care is much larger than simply that of female soldiers (and female veterans). Military medical policy covers the entire family of soldiers, including wives and daughters. It is really unendurable to see faux-females prioritized over women in this respect.

By all means, everyone is entitled to the best health possible. However, this recent demonstration of the Pentagon’s newly found liberalism is a bitter pill to swallow for the average woman in service. And insofar as hormone-replacement therapy is being offered to those wishing to change their gender, this could well prove to be a poisoned chalice. Does anyone remember the dreadful lessons learned by menopausal women using HRT?

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