200 British women soldiers sent home for being pregnant

New Delhi: Nearly 200 British soldiers have been ordered home from Afghanistan and Iraq after they became pregnant, it has been revealed. They were sent back to the UK and their pregnancies mark a sharp rise in the number of those finding out they are expecting a child while in combat. A shocking 99 were evacuated from Afghanistan and 102 from Iraq under rules that ban mothers-to-be from serving on the front line. Commanders ordered them to return to Britain – sometimes on flights reserved for injured troops – as soon as their condition became known. Sexual relations among troops while at war is frowned upon by the MoD. While there are no rules relating to sex between two soldiers, troops can be disciplined if their activities undermine operations on the field. An MOD Spokesperson said: 'Pregnant women are not allowed to be deployed on operations. 'The small numbers of personnel who discover that they are pregnant on operations (or at sea) are returned at the first convenient opportunity. Incredibly, female soldiers are not forced to take a pregnancy test before deploying because top brass believe it would be an invasion of privacy. But the Ministry of Defence has faced calls to introduce compulsory tests because it is ‘unacceptable' that other service personnel are placed at risk of attack while evacuating pregnant women from the front line. Official MoD figures showed 201 pregnant servicewomen have been evacuated from the conflict in Afghanistan since 2006 and from the war in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. The MoD said it was fewer than one per cent of female soldiers deployed on operations. Most of the babies would have been conceived before the mother left the UK but a small number of women may have become pregnant on a tour of duty. The Armed Forces do not have a set-in-stone ‘no-touching' rule for troops in the war zone.