Reproductive coercion

[ismnotwasm]

Reproductive coercion often is accompanied by physical or sexual violence, study finds

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Young women and teenage girls often face efforts by male partners to sabotage birth control or coerce pregnancy — including damaging condoms and destroying contraceptives — and these efforts, defined as “reproductive coercion,” frequently are associated with physical or sexual violence, a study by a team of researchers led by UC Davis has found.

Published online today in the January issue of the journal Contraception, the study, “Pregnancy Coercion, Intimate Partner Violence and Unintended Pregnancy,” also found that among women who experienced both reproductive coercion and partner violence, the risk of unintended pregnancy doubled. The study is the first quantitative examination of the relationship between intimate partner violence, reproductive coercion and unintended pregnancy, the authors say.

“This study highlights an under-recognized phenomenon where male partners actively attempt to promote pregnancy against the will of their female partners,” said lead study author Elizabeth Miller, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the UC Davis School of Medicine and a practitioner at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “Not only is reproductive coercion associated with violence from male partners, but when women report experiencing both reproductive coercion and partner violence, the risk for unintended pregnancy increases significantly.”
---snip---

This study confirms that women experiencing partner violence are more likely to have greater need for sexual and reproductive health services," Miller said. "Thus, clinical settings that offer reproductive health services likely offer the greatest opportunity to identify women experiencing partner violence and to ensure that women receive the counseling and support they may need." Comprehensive assessment in clinical settings for pregnancy coercion, birth control sabotage and intimate partner violence should be considered a priority in the context of family planning services. Moreover, public health efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy should ensure that discussions of reproductive coercion are included in pregnancy prevention programs, she said."


Damn. Puts a different spin on the whole 'Who's your baby's daddy" bullshit, now doesn't it?


http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/newsdetail.html?key=3634&svr=http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu&table=published

[BlueIris]

1. Kick. Disturbing and vile. nt

[Qanisqineq]

2. I can relate

I was once with an abusive man who would force me to have sex. His idea was that if I got pregnant, I wouldn't leave him. I did get pregnant but got an abortion -- and stayed with him for two more years. After I left him, I found out I was pregnant again. I terminated that one, too. He found out and was pissed; he thought it would bring us back together.

[bliss_eternal]

3. so sorry you experienced this...

:hug: but super glad to see you speak of it in the past tense. ;) glad you got out of that situation.

[ThomCat]

5. I am very sorry.

:(


If a man is willing to use a child as a ball and chain, will he hesitate to use it as a club later on?

I am sorry you had to deal with the coercion and games from that kind of relationship. I'm glad there is no child still tied to him, and tying you to him.

[bliss_eternal]

4. I sincerely wish there was more knowledge of this...

...phenomena in society. At the very least, more of an awareness that this exists. The general "meme" is that those evil super slutty women are scheming behing the menz backs. You know....puncturing condoms, purposely telling all the poor dudes they're on birth control and.....gasp....aren't....all so they can trap themselves a man by getting pregnant.

:eyes: :puke:

Given the rates of single female parents on the planet, I take issue with that theory as the sole one, and appreciate seeing this article posted. It's a shame this can't be discussed outside of this forum. We all know how that would go. :nopity:

[ThomCat]

6. It really is a measure of how much people Want to believe

anything bad that can be said about women that they believe women are getting pregnant to entrap us.

Can anyone point to anyone who has been "entrapped" into a relationship? Is anyone married because they got someone pregnant and HAD to get married?

Single mothers are so common, often raising a child without even child support, that obviously there is no cultural or social pressure for men to care if they get a woman pregnant. So who or what is trapping men? Where is this pressure? Who is exerting it?

Men can walk away and nobody will care, or think less of them except the mother and some of her friends. Men can even walk away repeatedly from multiple women they have impregnated, and the general social reaction is that he's a player. He's cool for avoiding the consequences of the pregnancies and leaving the women to take care of everything without him.

I used to do free babysitting most weekends for a friend who has two kids. The father has 5 kids from 4 different women, and he's living with another woman who apparently wants to marry him and have a child with him. He has never once paid child support to any of his kids. He doesn't see any of them and doesn't want to. He takes no responsibility, and the courts have been unable/unwilling to make him.

A lot of men think they are getting screwed by women because of the POSSIBILITY that a woman might win child support. That is their idea of entrapment. "Oh No! You got pregnant just to get all of my hard earned money!" :eyes:

Never mind that the mother is paying far, far more money than the peanuts the father ever pays, and she also pays years of constant commitment of her time, effort, and lost opportunities. No cost to the mother is considered important. But every dollar a man pays is an outrage!

Whenever I hear men whine about women trying to trap them, I know they believe bullshit about women, they have an over-inflated sense of how desirable they are, and they are almost universally cheap and dishonest about money.

[seabeyond]

7. eh, i have seen it. woman purposely got preg to marry brother. brother no way.

he also wasnt going to walk away from baby and mother made his and daughter life hell because of it. until she had child taken away ten years later and given to brother. he paid over 100k trying to have rights to child. she got free council.

i have also had a couple guys when younger think getting me preg would hook me.

i agree with the essence of your post. i also know that a lot of women do stuff too. both genders have issues. both genders do good/bad, right/wrong.

what does it say about the gal that allows herself to be impreg by five different fathers????? not all of these men are pricking holes in condomes.

[ismnotwasm]

8. I think what's disturbing about it all

Is the ability to become pregnant is real, primal power. It goes to the heart of any species, procreation, continence. No babies, No species. For a woman who otherwise is not empowered, baby making is tangible power. It's also emotional solace. Neither are great reasons to have kids.

Males share an important role, especially in genetic diversity, I mean we could get along with fewer males I suppose, but what would that do to the so called 'gene pool'? Fathers are important as well and it baffles me when men seem so detached. I guess it's because they can. That same behavior in women would be considered a mental illness.

Anyway, back to the power thing. Womens reproductive rights are continually challenged as well as their reproductive choices. I was talking to friends of mine about verbal semantics--Using the words 'child free' rather then 'child less' More and more I'm meeting women who DO NOT want kids and they get a whole lot of shit for daring to say so, once they hit the 30's, the pressure on them intensifies. Women who are pregnant get a whole lot of shit for terminating their pregnancies, or even thinking about it. In the article, it seems that those women have no choice that they can see or understand, forced to become pregnant then forced, either emotionally, legally, physically or spiritually to bear children. That's pretty fucking sick, man.

Myself, my two birth children have two different fathers. Both men were useless, one is dead from drugs and drinking, and I didn't want a motherfucking thing from either of them. I did my pregnancies alone, or without partners support, I should say. Without going into detail here, there were also were other terminated pregnancies by other men.

What does that say about me? I was no angel and what I think is, or what I wish is, I had clearer ideas of what reproductive choice meant. My sexual behavior was partly out of inexperience (boy did that change quickly) and partly out of ignorance, and partly, no doubt out of the emotional damage I had back in the day. I understand the 'sex positive' ones more than they can ever know. That was me at in my early 20's, before they had a word for it. I realized eventually that it was all bullshit, and I went off in a different direction. Now I'm damn near 'self actualized.' and a very happy person--not perfect, far from a perfect life, but happy. (And what a long strange trip it's been. I'm kind of like one of those 'success stories' you hear about on Oprah, just not nearly as dramatic as most, and I reject middle class trappings. B-O-R-I-N-G)

So to me, it all goes back, at least in part, to good sex education, good information, good teachers of that information, healthy attitudes about sex and that includes sex, sexuality and gender. Yes women can be assholes. We have Sarah Palin to remind us of that every day, but we need to have our full reproductive rights, the right to have or not have children, without all that grief, without everybody in our business.
And NOT, for example, TV shows that show us women who can't keep track of their baby daddy.

[seabeyond]

9. there for the grace of god...

i didnt use condoms. didnt grow up with safe sex. was always a finger crossed.

i never had to suffer repercussion of poor choices. lucky me.

i was single a long time. i played a long time.

i hear and agree with all you say. i also understand the 'sex positive", lol. that is one of the things i was trying to get across in that other thread. me, you.... many of us has been there, done that, lived it. then we grow up, lol. gain experience. see it deeper.

it is all good, or all bad or whatever one may chose. i choose to see it as neither. simply journeys we experience to learn from. continual opportunities for growth and hopefully one of the decisions dont take us down.

now... i always chose a guy that was somewhat responsible and always respectful. in my growing up and experiences, that was bred into me, fit who i was. so i never had to experience the loser guy. i know there are reasons for both male and female to have to experience and go to that person that is not the best or healthiest to be with

again, .... it is simply the lesson we have to experience for whatever reason. not really judgment calls either way.