Pregnancy Coercion, Intimate Partner Violence and Unintended Pregnancy

Overview

Journal Contraception

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Reproductive Medicine

Date 2010 Mar 16

PMID 20227548

Citations 222

Authors

Elizabeth Miller

Michele R Decker

Heather L McCauley

Daniel J Tancredi

Rebecca R Levenson

Jeffrey Waldman

Phyllis Schoenwald

Jay G Silverman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Reproductive control including pregnancy coercion (coercion by male partners to become pregnant) and birth control sabotage (partner interference with contraception) may be associated with partner violence and risk for unintended pregnancy among young adult females utilizing family planning clinic services.

Study Design: A cross-sectional survey was administered to females ages 16-29 years seeking care in five family planning clinics in Northern California (N=1278).

Results: Fifty-three percent of respondents reported physical or sexual partner violence, 19% reported experiencing pregnancy coercion and 15% reported birth control sabotage. One third of respondents reporting partner violence (35%) also reported reproductive control. Both pregnancy coercion and birth control sabotage were associated with unintended pregnancy (AOR 1.83, 95% CI 1.36-2.46, and AOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.14-2.20, respectively). In analyses stratified by partner violence exposure, associations of reproductive control with unintended pregnancy persisted only among women with a history of partner violence.

Conclusions: Pregnancy coercion and birth control sabotage are common among young women utilizing family planning clinics, and in the context of partner violence, are associated with increased risk for unintended pregnancy.

Citing Articles

Determinants of pressure to conceive among reproductive age women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A multilevel analysis of recent Demographic and Health Surveys in five countries.

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Provincial distribution of unintended pregnancy and its associated factors in Sierra Leone.

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Knowledge and attitude toward intimate partner violence among couples: a baseline findings from cluster randomized controlled trial in rural Ethiopia.

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