The military is not an easy place to be for anyone, but apparently, it's especially difficult for women looking to have kids. Single mom Rebecca Edmonds is making headlines after she revealed that she was not only kicked out of the service for being pregnant, but also that a military officer told her she would have continued to serve if she'd had an abortion!
Edmonds joined the Air Force in 2007 at 18 years old, but 11 weeks before she was supposed to graduate and become a commission officer, she found out she was pregnant. Scared to reveal the news to her superiors, Edmonds went on to complete her training, keeping her pregnancy a secret until after she reached the 6-month mark. When she finally revealed the truth, Edmonds says offi__cials accused her of fraud for keeping the pregnancy hidden__ and going against the Air Force contract's rules about single parenthood.
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Edmonds was not only separated from the service over the ordeal, but she was also held liable for the $92,000 scholarship she received, which she now has to pay back to the military. But the worst part of the incident according to her? The mom says that officials implied that had she found a way to give up her child, either through adoption or abortion, she would have been able to continue her service. And when she tried to appeal against the military, officials shot down her request and said they would have considered re-evaluating her case if she wasn't a single parent.
Wow, I am honestly not all too sure how to feel about this situation. While I certainly agree with Edmonds that no one–military officials included–has the right to try and dictate what she should do with her body, facts are still facts…and Edmonds did violate the contract she signed upon first joining the Air Force. And she definitely didn't help her case by hiding her pregnancy for so long. After all, it's the military, not just some random company.
That isn't to say the military's approach to single parents isn't flawed because it is. But no matter how imperfect their system is, at the end of the day, I don't think it's possible to place the blame solely on them–especially because it seems like both parties have very faulty reasoning.
Image via CNN
