The Intersection of Domestic Violence and Abortion

The role of domestic violence as it impacts reproductive health outcomes, including abortion, has been understudied. To examine this topic further, I will be drawing on two data sets. The first data set is a qualitative data set gathered in the United States in 2007 with 75 women who had experienced intimate partner violence and who were accessing reproductive health services. The second data set is a quantitative and qualitative data set gathered in 2008-2009 in the United States with approximately 10,000 women obtaining abortions as well as 49 in-depth interviews with the same population. The first data set provides insight into how abusive partners can influence the reproductive health of women, using unwanted pregnancy as a method of control. In these situations, sometimes women are prevented from having an abortion when they want one and at other times they are coerced into having an abortion when they want to carry the pregnancy to term. The second data set will provide nationally representative numbers of women having abortions who have experienced intimate partner violence (physical and sexual) and will look at disclosure of the abortion and perceived partner support of the abortion according to whether this partner has perpetrated intimate partner violence.