Military sends 200 pregnant soldiers back home to Britain

TWO hundred female soldiers have been sent home from the front line after finding out they were pregnant.
 BABY, COME BACK: A total of 99 female soldiers were sent back to Britain from Afghanistan and 102 from Iraq 
 

It has put huge pressure on military services and risks lives, according to critics.

They now want mandatory testing to avoid unnecessary medical emergencies.

Between January 2006 and December last year, 99 servicewomen in Afghanistan and 102 in Iraq were forced to return to the UK.

Mothers-to-be are banned from serving in a war zone.

But top brass fear pregnancy checks would be an “invasion of privacy”.

Major Charles Heyman, a retired soldier and editor of Armed Forces Of The United Kingdom, said: “It would make a lot of sense if some sensible arrangement could be made for women before they travel to the front line.

“The medical facilities are very basic in the forward locations.”
The women were flown home on flights reserved for injured troops.

An MoD spokesman said: “The small numbers of personnel who discover they are pregnant on operations are returned at the first convenient opportunity.”