I don't know if other clinics are noticing this as well, but we've seen lots more servicemen and women over the past year. I don't want to use this post to make any overly-simplistic arguments like Iraq War = more deployments and hardships for military families = more abortions, but I do want to mention some of the challenges that military families face when choosing abortion.
Maricela had been a teen mom and struggled for years to achieve some degree of self-sufficiency for she and her son. She worked a minimum wage job at a big box store. She met a boyfriend there and he challenged her to explore more options for her life. "There's not much out there for a single Latina mom with no education," she said, "and so I enlisted." She waited for basic training and a few weeks after getting her assignment, found out she was pregnant. "I'm sure that I can't have a baby now," she explained, "I have to get some training so that afterwards I can take care of my son. This is our only hope." Her mother had agreed to care for her son while she was gone. The challenge now was the pregnancy test at her preliminary medical exam. (Many pregnancy tests will give a false positive reading in the weeks after an abortion, because they test for hormones that are still in the body.) "If I come up as pregnant, I don't get to go. It's this or the Walmart." I offered to have her records faxed to any clinician she wanted, but she was reluctant. "I don't really want them to know that I just had an abortion, but I guess if it comes to that I'll have to. I guess we can just hope for a negative test, eh?"
Lana's story was much more serious. She had a string of abusive boyfriends and finally found the guy she said was "the one." Just one little problem--he was due to be sent to Afghanistan just three months after they started dating. Lana was in school to be a vet tech and had huge student loan bills. When her roommate moved out, her rent doubled and bills piled up. She worked at her regular job, but this wasn't making a dent. A friend worked as an exotic dancer and suggested that she give it a try. "I looked for something else, really there was nothing. I was going to be evicted." She didn't tell her boyfriend. "I was so ashamed. He's in a war zone, why would I bother him with my problems. Everyone kept telling me--don't worry him, he doesn't need to know about this. All his family kept saying was don't you break his heart, you better be faithful. " Lana was raped by a man at the club, but didn't report the incident. "I felt like, who was going to believe me--I was a stripper." Now pregnant from the rape, there was nothing she would have liked more than to tell her boyfriend, not just about the pregnancy, but about the dancing, the money issues, her mounting debt, all the stress she was under. "Everyone kept saying, he needs you to be strong, don't you worry him. I don't know what he'd think of me. I was a good girl and now I'm a stripper. How could I tell him?" I reinforced that no one should ever be raped and being in the sex industry doesn't change that, but she had a hard time hearing me. "I'm supposed to be the loyal girlfriend at home pining away, not having an abortion from some guy who forced me." I encouraged her to get some counseling and gave her a referral to a sexual assault agency in her area, but with all that shame around the rape, I'm doubtful she followed up.
Cheyenne was positive that she didn't want to be pregnant while her husband was deployed, but military insurance will ONLY cover abortion services when the life of the mother is at risk. (Yep, check it out. No coverage if you're raped, if you have a significant fetal abnormality. No coverage for counseling, even.) "Hasn't our family sacrificed enough already? I have a thyroid disorder, depression and PTSD. My husband is in Iraq. I had to move in with my mother and I've hardly bought groceries this month because I've been trying to save up for a f***ing abortion," she said. "How much more 'at risk' does my life have to be?" That, I told her, was a damn good question.
-Nell
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Fantastic Post! Thanks for sharing...
I'm sharing this with everyone I Know!
Thanks.
I have bookmarked this entry and am saving it for my fiance to read when he comes back from Afghanistan (he is passionate about the military, and newly interested in feminism, so I think this will help to cement that interest).
Thank you for writing this.
Fabulous post. I had no idea that military health insurance only covered abortion when the life of a pregnant woman is at risk.
Heart-wrenching post, Nell, with so many hard choices being made. As an Army brat myself, I would add that there is usually a spike in pregnancies on military bases when the units stationed there are being deployed or returning from deployment. 1992 was a boom year for births in military families after the deployments of Desert Storm.
But thank god that Viagra is covered - looks like you only have to pay a 22 dollar copay for a 90 day supply!
http://www.tricareformularysearch.org/dod/medicationcenter/MedicationSelect.aspx?selected_sponsor_plan_id=30000141&indication_name=Erectile+Dysfunction&sponsor_plan_ids=30000140%2C30000141&dxid=2383
Really sickening.
To be semi-fair ish, it looks like most forms of birth control are also covered.
http://www.tricareformularysearch.org/dod/medicationcenter/MedicationSelect.aspx?selected_sponsor_plan_id=30000141&indication_name=Birth+Control&sponsor_plan_ids=30000140%2C30000141&dxid=3454
Not to diminish the seriousness of not covering abortions, but Viagra is usually compared to birth control, so I wanted to look that up. At $3.00 for a 30-day supply of most of the pill brands. And that only if you buy at retail or via mail. If you go to a military pharmacy they are all $0.00, except for the "non-formulary" ones, and I don't know what that means.
Uggghhh... Tricare is a total bureacratic mess, but it's still better than what I had as a civilian. The literature I've been given says that they won't pay for abortions, period end of story, although I see their web site says that they caver them to save a life. From a purely finacial standpoint an abortion is a lot cheaper than paying for the delivery and continued healthcare of a child, particularly for an active duty female, so I assume this is philosophically or poltically motivated.
Birthcontrol is free from a millitary pharmacy. The co-pays mostly apply to family members or retirees who use regular pharmacies. I've never paid anything for my prescriptions at any pharmacy. The formulary is what tricare will pay for no questions asked. Getting non-formulary prescriptions can also be free if deemed medically necessary.(I've done this.)
What upsets me is that Plan B still isn't on the the Basic Core Formulary, which is what every millitary treatment center is required to have. Maybe they just give women who request emergency contraception a bunch of regular birthcontol pills with the same active ingredient. I imagine many do stock it, but it's not required. I really hate to think that emegency contraception might not be avalable at millitary treatment facilities.
it really ticks me off how it's not covered. she was raped. she's suffered enough. they should just cover the damn abortion.
i really hope she gets that money.
You will still have to make the co-pay as active duty depending on where you are stationed. When I was in Monterey if I didn't get my meds at the TMAC (which had crappy hours) then I had to pay somewhere from $6 to $12 depending on what I needed. Doesn't seem like a lot until you are a single mother, E3 and already tight on money.
Yes, most forms of birth control are covered unless you get one of those conscious clause crazy providers, like I did. That can really screw up your access.
Thank you for sharing this. We demand so much from our military but we still fail to give them quite a few basic needs. My life is a little better now that I am a dependent and not AD. But I still want to do what I can to make sure women get access that I didn't. Awareness helps.