By Penny Coleman
November 11, 2008.
This outrage gives "supporting the troops" a whole new meaning.
--
Editor's note: a correction was made to this story since publication.
The uncorrected version stated incorrectly that the military doesn't
cover forensic exam kits for the 20 percent of rape victims treated
on military bases.
--
Sarah Palin's decision not to pay for rape kits when she was mayor of
Walsilla was an issue in the campaign for the White House. But allow
me to introduce the large pink elephant that has been sitting quietly
in the corner of the room:
At the Winter Soldier Investigation in March, Spec. Patricia McCann,
who served in Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard from 2003-4,
read a memo issued to all MEDCOM commanders clarifying that "SAD
kits"-- which are forensic rape kits--"are not included in TRICARE coverage." *
TRICARE, the United States Department of Defense Military Health
System that covers active duty members, will only pay for rape kits
if the victim is seen in a military or a VA facility.
But the Pentagon acknowledges that 80 percent of military rapes are
never reported. And that 80 percent who go off-base to protect their
anonymity (and/or their careers) are on their own. If a soldier is on
leave, or is five-hours from the nearest VA, or if a soldier is
simply delivered to the nearest hospital by the local ambulance
driver, their rape kits are not covered under TRICARE. Neither are
other forensic exams that might be used in domestic violence situations.
Front-line treatment shouldn't be conditional on where a rape occurs
or where the nearest treatment is available. This is not only a
parity issue, but a further obstacle to treatment and justice.
Women in the military are twice as likely to be raped as their
civilian counterparts. In fact, "women serving in the U.S. military
today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by
enemy fire in Iraq," Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., told the
House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in May.
Harman said, "The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus
for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Health Center where
I met female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the
doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say
they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military,
and 29 percent said they were raped during their military service."
In July, a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing
subpoenaed Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault
Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to explain what the
department is doing to stop the escalating sexual violence in the
military. Her boss, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, ordered her
not to appear.
Whitley was finally made available to the committee on Sept. 10, but
only after having been threatened with a contempt citation.
Whitley first informed the committee that the DoD was conducting a
"crusade against sexual assault."
She then sought to reassure the committee with an accounting of all
the heroic measures the Pentagon is planning to implement in the very
near future.
But finally, she had to admit that in 2007 there were 2,688 sexual
assaults in the military, including 1,259 reports of rape. Just 8
percent (181) of those cases were referred to courts martial,
compared to a civilian prosecution rate of 40 percent. And almost
half of those cases were dismissed without investigation. (And I say
Whitley "had to admit" the number of cases because in 2004, Congress
woke up to the fact that the DoD was blowing off the issue and
required the military to make yearly reports on all matters relating
to sexual assault in the Armed Forces. But those reports did not
indicate either prioritizing or progress -- hence the hearings.)
Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., asked the committee if anyone thought
that "ordering its employees to ignore subpoenas to discuss the
topic" sounded as if DoD was taking any of this seriously. "Let me be
very clear. Preventing and responding to sexual assault perpetrated
against our soldiers is simply much too important to be playing a
game of cat and mouse." He later told Stars and Stripes that there
are only seven people on Whitley's staff to devise and implement the
military's sexual assault program for the entire military. That
number speaks for itself.
This is not news. As far back as 1995, Reuters reported that "Ninety
percent of women under 50 who have served in the U.S. military and
who responded to a survey report being victims of sexual harassment,
and nearly one-third of the respondents of all ages say they have been raped."
Furthermore, the Pentagon acknowledges that 80 percent of military
rapes are not reported in the first place, suggesting that the actual
number, if it were known, would be astronomical.
Cat-and-mouse games may sound like kid stuff, but refusing to pay for
a rape kit is anything but. It implies that the victim is to blame.
It does not encourage victims to come forward. And it makes it far
more likely that soldiers will interpret the permissive climate as
institutionally sanctioned misogyny.
In her Winter Soldier testimony, McCann noted, "The assistant
secretary of defense is soliciting legislative changes to TRICARE
benefits which will include these kits within covered TRICARE supplies."
I have been in touch with the office of the assistant secretary, S.
Ward Casscells, M.D. It seems that he has indeed solicited such
legislation, and it is due to go into effect in December as an
amendment to the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for
fiscal year 2007. The amendment contains some "background" that is
worth sharing.
Currently, forensic examinations are not covered for beneficiaries in
civilian health care facilities through TRICARE medical plans because
TRICARE "may cost share only medically or psychologically necessary
services or supplies. Forensic examinations are not conducted for
medical treatment purposes, but for the preservation of evidence in
any future criminal investigation and/or prosecution."
The decision to treat rape kits as purely evidentiary, ignoring the
very real medical and psychological benefits to the victim, is
reprehensibly primitive thinking. Making sure that those legislative
changes happen as planned would be a long overdue step out of the
primal ooze that has slimed our military in the eyes of our citizens
and the world.
Speaking to Palin's decision not to pay for rape kits, the former
governor of Alaska, Tony Knowles, was quoted in Palin's hometown
paper, the Frontiersman, as saying, "We would never bill the victim
of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene,
or for the cost of gathering other evidence. Nor should we bill rape
victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies."
When Barack Obama decides who he will appoint to head the Department
of Veterans Affairs in his administration, he should consider
appointing someone who also understands how important it is that
women's bodies, souls, dignity and health be taken seriously. Tammy
Duckworth, who is reported to be at the top of his list, certainly
has had personal experience with a health care delivery system she
has called "a little bit arcane."
Duckworth is now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans
Affairs, but in 2004, she was a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in Iraq
and lost both of her legs in a crash. She describes the care she
received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as "excellent," but adds,
"the comfort package I received contained men's Jockey shorts, and
the local VA hospital carried Viagra but not my birth control."
There are currently about 1.7 million female veterans in the United
States, and the Department of Defense estimates that there are about
200,000 women, 15 percent of the military, on active duty.
Thirty-nine percent of those women return from Iraq or Afghanistan
with mental health issues, and, for more than a third who seek VA
health care, the precipitating trauma was a sexual assault.
Every VA center now screens both men and women for sexual trauma.
That is an improvement. Still, Duckworth says, "I don't think the VA
mental health care system is ready for (female veterans)." It would
be encouraging to see a VA director who has some understanding of how
important that is to fix.
--
*The overwhelming indictment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan --
and the heartbreaking devastation they have wrought on the souls of
young American soldiers -- are now the subject of an invaluable book
edited by Aaron Glantz and issued by Haymarket Books.
--
Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam veteran who took his own life
after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder, Suicide and the Lessons of War, was released on Memorial Day 2006.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment