Loss of “Control”: How Some Abusers Use Reproductive Coercion February 22, 2011

Recently, a phone survey conducted by the National Domestic Violence Hotline not only confirmed the reproductive coercion as a means of relationship abuse, but gave stark insight into its scope and scale.

A new phone study conducted by the  National Domestic Violence Hotline, recently outlined a growing (and disturbing) trend in the sort of tactics being used by heterosexual men who physically and emotionally abuse their romantic partners: reproductive abuse. According to the report, men who abuse women physically and emotionally may also attempt to sabotage their partners’ birth control and reproductive rights, pressuring them to become pregnant, or to be at increased risk of pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases against their will.

While this may come as a surprise to some, reproductive abuse is nothing new to many victims of domestic violence.  For several years, smaller studies have documented this kind of coercion among low-income teenagers and young adults with a history of violence by intimate partners.  But what is interesting–and shocking–about the most recent research out of the NDVH study is not the existence of relationship abuse as a tactic of abusive partners, but the sheer scope and scale of the practice.

According to the report, 1 in 4 women who agreed to answer questions after calling the hot line said a partner had pressured them to become pregnant, told them not to use contraceptives, or forced them to have unprotected sex. As incredible as these figures may sound, even more chilling are the details and stories many respondents chose to share–particularly stories about the tactics many men used in order to coerce their female partners or manipulate their reproductive rights. “It was very eye-opening,” said Lisa James, director of health at the Family Violence Prevention Fund in San Francisco, which worked with the hot line on the report. “There were stories about men refusing to wear a condom, forcing sex without a condom, poking holes in condoms, flushing birth control pills down the toilet.”  And the list went on. “There were lots of stories about hiding the birth control pills — that she kept ‘losing’ her birth control pills, until she realized that he was hiding them,” Ms. James added. Other respondents described having to go to great lengths in order to retake some control of their own reproductive lives.  One woman described having to hide in the bathroom to take her pill.  Another said that when she got her period recently, her partner was “furious.”

Dr. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, helped design the questions of the survey, and noted the importance of its findings. “It’s really important to recognize reproductive coercion as another mechanism for control in an unhealthy relationship,” Dr. Miller said. At the same time, she added, younger women and girls dating older men may be confused by the pressure to become pregnant. “If you can put yourself in the shoes of a 15-year-old dating an 18- or 19-year-old man, which is not an unusual scenario, and he says to her, ‘We’re going to make beautiful babies together,’ that’s pretty seductive.”

While Dr. Miller admits that more research needs to be done on the subject, (particularly with respect to the motivations of the men in these scenarios), she freely admits that the phenomenon is unlikely to be a new one. “I just think not enough people have been asking the question,” she said.  And indeed, the data seems to back this up.

In a paper published last year in the journal Contraception, Dr. Miller reported that at five family planning clinics in Northern California, one-third of 683 female patients whose partners were physically abusive said the men had also pressured them to become pregnant or had sabotaged their birth control. Of 191 women who reported birth control sabotage, 79 percent also reported physical abuse, the study found. From a domestic violence perspective, these findings, and those of the NDVH phone study, are significant, and serve as a chilling reminder that abusive partners will often go to great and invasive lengths in order to exert power and control over their victim–in any aspect of their lives.

To learn more about domestic violence, reproductive coercion and your rights as someone in an abusive relationship call our 24-hour hotline at (919) 929-7122.

Girls’ First Sexual Encounters More Likely to Be Unprotected: Why? November 17, 2010

CNN Health recently published an article entitled “Girls’ First Sexual Encounters Are More Likely to Be Unprotected”. A study done by doctoral student Nicole Weller, at Arizona State University, found that adolescent girls were 30% more likely than boys to have sex without contraception during their first sexual encounter.  While Weller frames her findings in the context of girls being equally as risk taking as men, this can also be seen in a different light.

Laura Lindberg, senior research assistant at the Guttmacher Institute stated adolescent girls are actually less likely than boys to want to have sex when it happens for the first time and may not always advocate for birth control, if their male partner does not want to use it.  Lindberg also found that contraception at first sex is 80% condom usage, a method which depends largely on the boy being willing to use it.  These findings indicate that it is not girls being as “rick-taking” as boys, but rather, girls  being coerced into unprotected sexual activity.

As a recent post on this blog discussed, reproductive coercion is often a manipulative strategy many abusers use to maintain control over their victims. The feminist blog “The Curvature” discusses how comprehensive sexual health education is important, but without discussion of healthy relationships among adolescents, we will in all likelihood continue to see these increased rates  in unprotected sex with young women as well as large numbers of unplanned pregnancies and STI contraction.

When we start to use stigmatizing language to describe first sexual encounters of women as “risky” we negate the very real issue that for as many as 10% of young women’s sexual activity is involuntary (Center for Disease Control, 2009.).  This rhetoric reflects victim blaming culture which pervades our culture around issues of sexual assault and relationship violence.  In discounting societal and sexist pressures which have a dramatic impact on young girl’s view of themselves and self esteem, we do a great disservice to attempting to understand young women’s difficulties  surrounding sexuality.

At FVPC we are committed to working with adolescents on a variety of topics including what healthy, respectful relationships look like.  Our Start Strong and Save the Date programs address the dating concerns of middle and high school students as well as topics such as violence in the home, bullying and safe dating practices.

Reproductive Coercion October 5, 2010

When we think of intimate partner violence, we often associate it with images of physical abuse.  However more and more research illustrates the prevalence of reproductive coercion in abusive relationships, particularly with younger adolescent girls.  Reproductive coercion includes contraceptive sabotage (like throwing away birth control pulls or hiding them), refusal to wear condoms, demanding unprotected sex, and preventing (or in some cases forcing) abortion.

The website knowmoresaymore.org focuses on reproductive coercion and prevention strategies.  The website discusses a study done by Elizabeth Miller, M.D, Ph.D., in the pediatrics department of the University of California, found that among 61 racially and ethnically diverse girls in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods 53 were in abusive and sexually active relationships at the time they were interviewed and 26 percent said their partners were actively trying to get them pregnant.

What do these statistics mean for both domestic violence and health education initiatives with adolescents? These figures indicate that we need to re-think our framework of viewing teen pregnancy.  Jill Murray, Ph. D an expert on teen dating violence advises that we start treating pregnancy itself as a warning sign.  Instead of viewing teen pregnancy through a lens of “promiscuity” or a failure to understand contraceptive use, we need to start addressing it as a potential warning sign for abusive relationships. Miller states “teen pregnancy is likely emerging out of unhealthy relationships.  That’s not the only mechanism for teen pregnancy but it’s an important one that we’ve managed to miss for a long time.” 
Instead of promoting the idea of “just getting women on birth control”, we need to examine coercion in relationships because often, women in abusive relationships have no say negotiating condom use or have their birth control methods sabotaged.

Along with teen pregnancy increases, abusive sexually coercive relationships also leads to increased rates of STD’s.  Dr. Anne Teitelman is an expert on partner abuse and on HIV risk found that among adolescent girls, survivors of partner abuse are significantly more likely than others to be diagnosed with an STD.

What drives some adolescent males to behave in these abusive manners? Dr. Miller draws a conclusion to societal constructs of masculinity that link power and control of others to being able to “prove” one’s manliness.  In a time of social and emotional instability like adolescence, younger men, especially insecure younger men often insist on sexual control of their partners to combat their own insecurities and fears.  They are also rewarded by peers and by a social structure of manliness where men define their importance by controlling and dominating other people through multiple forms of violence.

So what can we do? A joint study by the Harvard School of Public Health, Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the National Institute of Health found that simply asking young women during clinic visits if they experienced reproductive coercion dramatically reduced the odds of their male partners attempting to force them to become pregnant by 70%.  The study found that participants who were asked about reproductive coercion and then counseled about harm-reduction strategies including switching to longer-acting contraceptives and contacting domestic and sexual assault resources were also 60% more likely to report ending a relationship because it felt unsafe or unhealthy. This is important because it identifies a solution that can be implemented easily.  By being active bystanders and by increasing education about DV issues,  reproductive health care practitioners can dramatically decrease reproductive coercion.  This study is also important because it illustrates the importance of understanding the intersectionality of reproductive justice, domestic violence and sexism.

We can all work to be active bystanders and intervene when we see someone in trouble.  Often just asking “Are you alright?” or “Do you need to talk?” can be the first step to someone getting the help they need.