Is US drafting women into military? Conscription proposal has backlash | US News

A political firestorm has ignited over a proposal to require women in the US to register for the draft into the military.

Senate Democrats added language to the annual defense authorization bill that would require women to sign up for conscription.

The House in a 217-199 vote last week passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act that allowed $895billion in military spending and included a bipartisan measure to make draft registration automatic. Simultaneously, a Senate committee approved a Pentagon policy bill that would expand that requirement to women.

US law currently requires most men aged 18 to 25 to register with the Selective Service, which oversees a database of individuals who could be subject to a draft.

The number of young Americans who volunteer to serve in the military has declined and is part of a downward trend since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

An internal Department of Defense survey in 2022 found that just 9% of young Americans who are eligible to serve in the military are interested, NBC News reported. That represents the lowest level since 2007.

In 2020, a panel of military experts told Congress that including women in conscription would be ‘in the national security interest of the United States’.

Lawmakers have put forth several measures aimed at altering draft laws, but all efforts thus far have been quashed.

What is the argument in favor of drafting women?

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s Democratic chair Jack Reed has defended the policy change proposal, saying that women can serve without being on troops on the front lines.

‘Women are doing a remarkable job in our forces today, and if we were in a situation requiring a draft, I think we would need all able-bodied citizens 18 and above,’ said Reed.

He added that the hypothetical scenario of going into a draft would mean a ‘serious, serious situation’.

‘It’s not like World War II where we need a lot of infantry,’ Reed said. ‘We need cyber experts, we need intelligence analysts, linguists, etc. Wait a second, there are a lot of women out there that can do this better than men.’

What is some of the backlash around women?

Republican Nevada Senate candidate Sam Brown, an Army veteran who was burned by an improvised device explosion, ripped Nevada Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen for voting in favor of requiring women to register.

‘Look at my face. This is the high cost of war,’ Brown said in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter).

‘Amy (his wife) and I volunteered to serve, and we honor all who serve. But forcing America’s daughters to register for the draft is UNACCEPTABLE. Shame on Jacky Rosen.’

Republican Senator Josh Hawley called the measure ‘insane’.

‘There shouldn’t be women in the draft. They shouldn’t be forced to serve if they don’t want to,’ Hawley told Fox News, adding that normal people want to ‘leave our daughters alone’.

The group Advancing American Freedom, which is affiliated with former Vice President Mike Pence, sent a letter to the Senate Republican leader and House speaker stating that conscription for women is ‘simply untenable and must be opposed at all costs’.

When was the last US draft?

The last draft in America was activated at the end of the Vietnam War, and the last man to be inducted was entered into the US Army on June 30, 1973.

Congress and the US president have the power to activate a draft.

Which countries have laws allowing women to be conscripted into the military?

As of early this year, around 20 countries have laws allowing women to be conscripted into military service.

It is a far smaller number compared to the dozens of nations that have laws for drafting men.

The countries with mandatory military service for women are: Benin, Chad, Congo, Equitorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, North Korean, Norway, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, Sweden, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam.

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