Season 3 Episode 4: Reproductive Coercion
About This Episode
Part of a perpetrator’s pattern of coercive control, reproductive coercion is a common and powerful tool that is used to entrap and control victims using pregnancy and children. Forcing women to become pregnant and maintain a pregnancy has long-term implications for women and children’s lives.
Not only do adult survivors suffer the consequences, but children are used as pawns. In this way, reproductive control can be thought of as a form of child abuse and neglect. In many instances, domestic violence perpetrators do not become abusive until their partner is pregnant and unable to leave them easily or safely.
Against the backdrop of the recent leak of a draft from United States Supreme Court ruling attacking a women’s right to autonomy over their own bodies, David and Ruth discuss reproductive coercion in the context of domestic violence, including:
Coercion and pressure to become pregnant or maintain a pregnancy
Sabotage and manipulation related to birth control
Control over the pregnancy and birth
In this sometimes raw, far-ranging conversation, Ruth and David examine the intersection of domestic violence and reproductive coercion; violence during pregnancy; history of the English judge, cited 9 times by Justice Alito in his draft ruling, who instructed juries not to believe women’s reports of rape; and the need for more work with men around pregnancy, reproductive respect, and birth control.
Additional Resources
Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings
Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events
David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence