Rape-Related Pregnancy and Association With Reproductive Coercion in the U.S.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Basile, Kathleen C. ; Smith, Sharon G. ; Liu, Yang ; Kresnow, Marcie-jo ; Fasula, Amy M. ; Gilbert, Leah ; Chen, Jieru
• Description:
  Introduction:
  
  Rape-related pregnancy is a public health problem where sexual violence and reproductive health intersect; yet, there is a dearth of research to inform public health practice. The authors examined the prevalence and characteristics of rape-related pregnancy in U.S. women and its association with intimate partner reproductive coercion.
  
  Methods:
  
  Data years 2010–2012 are pooled from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a telephone survey of U.S. adults. Accounting for complex survey design, in 2017, authors estimated the prevalence of vaginal rape–related pregnancy for U.S. women overall and by race/ethnicity. The authors also examined the proportion of rape-related pregnancy among victims of vaginal rape overall, by perpetrator type and by presence of reproductive coercion in the context of intimate partner rape.
  
  Results:
  
  Almost 2.9 million U.S. women (2.4%) experienced rape-related pregnancy during their lifetime. Among rape victims, 77.3% reported a current/former intimate partner perpetrator, and 26.2% of intimate partner rape victims reported rape-related pregnancy compared with those raped by an acquaintance (5.2%) or stranger (6.9%). Women raped by an intimate partner and reporting rape-related pregnancy were significantly more likely to have experienced reproductive coercion compared with women who were raped by an intimate partner but did not become pregnant.
  
  Conclusions:
  
  This paper reports the first national prevalence of rape-related pregnancy by any perpetrator in two decades. The high proportion of rape-related pregnancy committed by intimate partner perpetrators and its association with reproductive coercion suggest the need for primary prevention of intimate partner violence and access to trauma-informed reproductive health services for rape/intimate partner violence victims.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Article Coercion Female Humans Intimate Partner Violence Pregnancy Rape Reproductive Health Sex Offenses United States
• Source:
  Am J Prev Med. 55(6):770-776
• Pubmed ID:
  30361141
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6357953
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  55
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:04ea9888c337511ff48642a538f8c4ae65cfd062db7fdfcc955c78c3f3c5a536
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/75442/cdc_75442_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 324.36 KB ]