Abort pregnancy test for NS trainees, says SIS

Another women's rights NGO has called for a review of the decision to force all female National Service trainees to undergo pregnancy tests, calling it a "disproportionate response". 

In a press statement today, Sisters in Islam (SIS) said this was because only six out of thousands of young women who underwent the programme had given birth at the camps since 2004.

The decision was also a "violation of person's right to privacy and bodily integrity" as recognised by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development in 2010, SIS said. 

"Instead of violating privacy rights, we believe that the Defence Ministry has the unique opportunity to address the issue by empowering our youths with the knowledge they need to develop for a lifelong positive attitude towards their social and reproductive health through comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights education," it said. 

SIS added that the Defence Ministry should also expand on the reproductive health module developed by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry for the National Service trainees that was launched in February 2011.

The movement also pointed out that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry also opposed mandatory pregnancy tests for National Service trainees.

"As a policy, the ministry is against conducting pregnancy tests as a requirement for all female NS participants as there are issues of privacy involved.

"Under current laws, any procedure that involves children under the age of 18 requires parental consent," then minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil had said in a statement in 2010. 

Other women groups have also spoken against the forced tests, raising fears that it may push young women with unplanned pregnancies to risk botched abortions to avoid being found out. 

94 percent of trainees agree

National Service Department director Abdul Hadi Awang Kechik yesterday announced that female trainees would have to undergo a mandatory pregnancy test. 
                
Abdul Hadi said the Cabinet had approved this at a meeting last month, while 94 percent of trainees and their parents surveyed in 2011 agreed to mandatory pregnancy tests. 

"The decision was made following discussions with the Defence Ministry and studies by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry regarding pregnancy tests on draftees,"Bernama reported him as saying.

The third batch of trainees in 2013, who started their training on Aug 17, would be the first to undergo the tests.

The trainees were mostly selectively drafted 18-year-olds, although some might not have turned 18 yet while others who had deferred training might be older. 

Those drafted must undergo three months of training, but several exclusions are allowed. Pregnant women are excused from attending training.