American women face abuse from partners over contraception choices
Up to three in 10 women seeking family planning healthcare in the US have suffered coercive control over their reproductive choices, researchers said Monday.
Women experienced abuse ranging from pressure over reproductive choices, to deliberate sabotage of contraception, and even threats of violence if they did not comply, a review of studies in the journal “BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health” found.
“It’s something that I think is still a bit unrecognized,” lead author Professor Sam Rowlands told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Reproductive control does not necessarily have any violence in it but there’s obviously quite an overlap with intimate partner violence.”
Control over family planning is widely recognized as a human right and experts say being able to prevent unwanted childbirth can improve women’s access to education and work, helping to break cycles of poverty.
However, the review found that coercion of women – usually by a male partner – appears to be common.
The authors defined reproductive coercion as including a wide range of behaviors that have an impact on a woman’s ability to take charge of her body and family planning choices.
It ranged from emotional blackmail to sabotage such as piercing condoms or throwing out contraceptive pills and socalled “stealthing” where a man secretly removes a condom during sex without consent.
It also included women who were coerced either to continue a pregnancy or have an abortion against their will.
A review of nine US studies of women seeking family planning or other healthcare found between 8 percent and 30 percent reported some form of reproductive control being held over them.
Young women and those from minority backgrounds appeared to be more vulnerable, the research found.
The extent of pressure ranges from mild to extreme: Some women might not realize they are being subjected to unhealthy or abusive behavior, especially if it is not accompanied by threats or violence, the authors said.