Abortion is a moral dilemma in today’s society there are many that support both sides with good reason; one supporting the life of a newborn, the other supporting a woman’s choice to have control over her own life. In this situation a Commanding Officer must face the decision of whether or not he should send a deployed sailor back to the states under “emergency leave” status in order to have an abortion. The Commanding Officer has several things to consider when making this decision that will affect a person’s life forever. Eel that after I went through the constitutional radium’s hierarchy of loyalties that my decision would be to deny the sailors “emergency leave”. The Constitutional Paradigm contains the hierarchy of loyalties that should be followed as laid out by the Oath, the order of these being Constitution, Mission, Service, Ship or Command, Shipmate, Self. The first priority being the Constitution and Abortion has been approved legal by the IS. S. Supreme Court. In my opinion the Constitution has no role to play in this decision, neither should any kind of governmental law.
Any kind of government should never play a role in deciding this factor, It should be left to the individual. Another thing to consider is the Jeopardy of the mission. The commanding officer told Petty Officer Taylor that her assistance would be Invaluable when a squadron of ships and a wing of B-2 Bombers arrive shortly, and if the base is undermanned then something could go wrong and the Bombers may be late for their mission and this could have catastrophic results.
Also Petty Officer Taylor was only assigned to this remote base for a I-year duration, and she was assigned there for the sole purpose to work there and work towards the mission of the base, and If she left then she would not be fulfilling the duty she wore to fulfill. Not only because It is the fifth priority of the paradigm, but the Commanding Officer should look after his shipmates In order to keep respect among all of his sailors. The Commanding Officer has the ability to make the Petty Officer a mother, or not a mother by signing a piece of paper.
This is a huge life decision, and I feel that someone should not be able to make a decision like that for someone else and that he should allow the sailor to get the abortion as she wishes. The Commanding Officer Is going to also have to consider his personal beliefs and values hen making this decision. Due to the fact that the Commanding Officer Is a “deeply religious” man, he would naturally be against abortion. But I don’t feel that he should be able to force his personal moral beliefs, which most likely were from Divine Theory, onto Petty Officer Taylor. Eel that everyone should be able to have their own personal morals, especially when these come from religious beliefs. Forcing your own religious beliefs onto someone would be taking away their freedom of religion, guaranteed as an American by the Constitution. In this situation the Commanding Officer should not deny the abortion based on his own morals, If the sailor thinks that abortion is morally acceptable and it is legal then he should be obliged to allow it.
Another point is the fact that Petty Officer Taylor is requesting to have this abortion thru “emergency leave”. The problem with this is that “emergency leave” is only granted for when the service-member or one of their immediate family members is in a life-threatening condition. Being pregnant Is not a life-threatening condition, and the So from this aspect I feel that I would deny the “emergency leave” due to the fact that t does not qualify as per the Navy standards as “emergency leave”.
In conclusion I feel that after using the hierarchy of loyalties that the Commanding Officer should refuse the request to take “emergency leave” to get an abortion. The mission would be compromised, and that is the most important part of being a service-member and why every service-member took an oath to put the mission ahead of self. Of course if situations change regarding her services at the base, or a replacement could be made then she should be allowed to go home to get the abortion.