From contraception access to safe abortion , there is growing awareness about reproductive health and rights. Around the world, reproductive rights and justice are issues of political debate and on the electoral ballot . But for some, the greatest threat to their reproductive autonomy is being wielded by those closest to them.
Last week, preliminary findings were presented from the Australian Study of Health and Relationships on the prevalence of reproductive coercion and abuse nationally. This form of gender-based violence is where someone seeks to control another person’s reproductive choices using physical, sexual, and/or emotional violence or threats. The study included 4,540 participants aged 16–69 years.
Early analysis showed one in 20 reported experiencing controlling behaviours over contraception, pregnancy and abortion. So what makes these controlling behaviours different from other forms of abuse? And how can we find out more? What is it? Reproductive coercion and abuse is mostly perpetrated against women, girls and LGBTQIA+ people, usually by a partner, parent or in-law. Someone might do this by trying to coerce or force the other person to become pregnant or have an abortion .
This can look like: relentlessly pressuring the person to have a baby when they don’t want to refusing to let them use birth control, or withholding or destroying it harassing or stalking them to find out if they had an abortion. The recent rapid review for government on approaches to .