Pentagon Seeks to Reassure Service Members on Access to Abortion, Women with PTSD Getting ‘Dirty’
WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials are working to quell concerns within Defense Department facilities and at Department of Health and Human Services offices about recent reports that women having a medical procedure to remove a fetal tissue sample are “getting dirty” by being in a potentially exposed state.
“Service members are told, again and again, that these procedures — whether the process is performed at DOD or DHHS — are safe and do not allow for the transmission of blood related infections,” said a message from John A. Rogers, a Navy doctor and the spokesman for the Defense Health Agency.
The Pentagon is working to get to the bottom of reports that women who have taken blood tests to remove fetal tissue are getting “dirty.”
“We are working diligently to get to the bottom of this and are working with our health partners to ensure no one is exposed,” said John A. Rogers, the Navy doctor and a spokesman for the Defense Health Agency.
The messages were sent to various locations, including Defense Department facilities, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even to the House and Senate Armed Services committees.
In the messages, Rogers is quoted by the Navy as saying, “We are working closely with health partners and are aware of the concern these events on their own may create. In conversations with DoD, DHHS, CDC and representatives of NIJ, we are reviewing procedures and will continue to do so.”
Officials at the Pentagon are trying to calm the fears of women that they will not be allowed to take a pregnancy test or a blood test that is used to collect fetal tissue to remove it. They are also trying to calm the fears of women who will have a medical procedure for the removal of fetal tissue.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some concerns.
According to two individuals with knowledge of the situation, women who have taken tests, including those to collect fetal tissue, are indeed getting dirty. That means they are in potential close contact with the area where they might