"Up to three in 10 women seeking family planning healthcare in the United States have suffered coercive control over their reproductive choices, researchers said on Monday.
Women experienced abuse ranging from pressure over reproductive choices to deliberate sabotage of contraception to 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."
Read the full article here. For more information on this topic, see the Reproductive Justice & Violence Against Women: Understanding the Intersections special collection.
