Unwanted pregnancies most often are the result of two consenting adults having sex either without birth control or with defective or misused contraception. But sometimes women in abusive relationships find themselves tricked or forced into pregnancies, according to a study reported by Newsweek.
Elizabeth Miller, a pediatrics expert and professor at the University of California, Davis, published the study in the journal Contraception to shed some light on what many of her contemporaries say is an underestimated phenomenon.
Reproductive coercion, Newsweek writes, occurs "when the male partner pressures the other, through verbal threats, physical aggression, or birth-control sabotage, to become pregnant." An Illinois family law attorney could provide more clarity as to how the law handles such instances, but Miller's research finds a close correlation between reproductive coercion and physical abuse.
Miller's study involved 1,300 female patients between the ages of 16 and 29 who visited family-planning clinics through Northern California. According to her findings, one-third of women reporting domestic violence say they experienced reproductive coercion, about twice the rate of women who never reported violence.
Overall, roughly one-fifth of women who use the services of family-planning clinics reported forced pregnancy. Miller told Newsweek that it seems to go hand-and-hand with traditional cases of violence against women:
"What we're seeing is that, in the larger scheme of violence against women and girls, it is another way to maintain control."
Newsweek reports that Miller and other experts worry that reproductive coercion among teenage girls in particular may be getting lost in the alarmingly increasing rate of teen pregnancy.
Related Resources:
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Domestic Violence FAQ (FindLaw)
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Reproductive Coercion Facts & Resources (Know More Say More)
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Reproductive Coercion Often is Accompanied by Physical or Sexual Violence, Study Finds (UC Davis Health System)
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