
(Video: News report on the military draft from January 2020)
Half a decade after women were permitted to serve in combat roles in the US Armed Forces, a congressionally mandated commission has now stated that it recommends making American women eligible for the draft.
The commission’s findings determined that it is only fair that women be eligible for call-up if military situations become so dire as to require selective service measures.
“This is a necessary and fair step, making it possible to draw on the talent of a unified nation in a time of national emergency,” the report read.
The commission’s 255-page report, obtained by Politico, was drafted by an 11-member commission established by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
Currently, the Military Selective Service Act requires all American men to register for the draft at the age of 18. Men who fail to register can be fined, thrown in jail and/or denied services such as federal student loans.
The public generally supports including women in the draft, and many believe that doing so is the only way to achieve “equality” in the aftermath of the policy changes that allowed women to serve in combat roles.
In a 2019 case, a federal judge in Texas ruled that an all-male draft was unconstitutional.
The report does, however, take note that many women are often unsuitable for combat roles and that integrating female conscripts could impact readiness “due in large part to natural physical differences between men and women that have practical consequences for the lethality of gender-integrated fighting units.”
Still, some feel that women can be shoehorned into service based on their abilities- just maybe not with large numbers going into combat roles.
“It’s insulting to suggest America’s mothers and wives and daughters couldn’t contribute, whether the need were [sic] rebuilding levees after a natural disaster or repelling an invasion from our shores,” Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told the commission. “America’s daughters should be slotted into service as their physical and emotional suitability proves capable of, just like America’s sons.”
The proposal to expand the draft to include women was introduced in 2016 by then-Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a Marine veteran who is currently facing jail time for misuse of funds.
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