Newsweek: 'Reproductive Coercion'

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2010-01-27 15:19

Article here. Perhaps. But so is the "oops, I forgot to tell you I didn't take my birth control" excuse. THAT is reproductive coercion as well - if not outright FRAUD and hijacking a male's finances for 20+ years. Excerpt:

Experts are studying a phenomenon that brings a whole new meaning to the term 'unwanted pregnancy.

About a decade ago, Elizabeth Miller remembers seeing a certain teenage girl at a hospital clinic for adolescents in Boston. The patient thought she might be pregnant and asked for a test. When it came out negative, Miller started asking the standard questions, inquiring as to whether her patient wanted to be pregnant (she didn't) and whether she was using contraceptives (she wasn't). So Miller explained all of the birth-control options and, as she describes it, "sent her on her merry way with a brown bag of condoms." It was, by most measures, a pretty routine appointment.

Except that, two weeks later, the same patient was back at the hospital, in the emergency room after her partner pushed her down the stairs. "That was the wake-up call where I started thinking there might be a relationship between the two situations," says Miller, now an assistant professor of pediatrics at University of California, Davis. "She was coming in for a pregnancy test, not wanting to be pregnant, and not wanting to use birth control. And now I'm wondering what's going on for her, knowing she was in a physically and sexually violent relationship. I started wondering whether I needed to be asking her about why [she isn't using birth control] at that visit."
...

Overall, rates of reproductive coercion among family-planning-clinic patients are suprisingly high: about one in five women report their partner having attempted to coerce them into pregnancy. "What we're seeing is that, in the larger scheme of violence against women and girls, it is another way to maintain control," says Miller, who studied 1,300 female patients culled from five family-planning clinics in Northern California. "You have guys telling their partners, 'I can do this because I'm in control' or 'I want to know that I can have you forever.' " This may help explain previous findings of higher rates of unintended pregnancies in relationships with partner violence.
...
The boundary between reproductive coercion and relationship violence—and whether there is, in fact, a boundary at all—is a difficult issue for health-care providers to address. In some cases, it can fit a spectrum of other abusive behaviors, from threatening to physical violence, that create an imbalance in a relationship's power dynamic. "Just like violence, it's a power thing," says Walker, who has seen patients whose boyfriends monitor their periods to ensure they're not taking Depo-Provera contraceptive shots (which often cause women to skip their period). "The man is taking away a woman's power to decide she's not going to have a child. Still, the line is unclear. Miller, for example, would be hesitant to categorize reproductive coercion as a form of partner violence, since many states have laws mandating reporting of such incidents. ...

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Comments

... it's this. There is just no stopping the men-are-evil-exploiters-of-female-sexuality juggernaut, is there? It really is anything, no matter how outrageous they can come up with, that must be under every phenomenon, isn't it?

I saw recently that "out of wedlock" pregnancies were reported to have gone up. I guess this here must be the reason: young men wanting girls to be pregnant so badly that they are FORCING the girls to become pregnant. Tell me readers, does this make any sense at all? Does a 20-YO man want to become a father so badly that he will FORCE a girl he is with to become pregnant?

Is there anything more nuts than these kinds of assertions?

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Submitted by Matt on Wed, 2010-01-27 22:30

This is really far fetched... I suppose it could happen, but how often? Of course there is no attention to the fact that women coerce men into being a father without the men's consent, and this happens ALL THE TIME! But I guess that's not newsworthy...

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Submitted by redwoodwriter on Thu, 2010-01-28 04:21

I went over to the comment forum for that article and let some of the female sexist bigots have a piece of my mind. Men's lack of 'reproductive rights' is the entire reason I became an MRA in the first place. I was defrauded by my ex-girlfriend who sabotaged our agreed upon method of birth control, and forced parental responsibilities upon me against my will. Hopefully I can introduce some men looking at the comments to our movement, and some of the legitimate grievances that we have.

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Submitted by insdel2005 on Thu, 2010-01-28 05:19

I hope you guys don't feel like a disagree with you at every turn. You have a lot of good things to say, and you have even swayed my own opinion on certain topics.

But it is common for both genders to use pregnancy as a way of "holding on" to another person.

My first pregnancy I think had a little bit of this element. I think he wanted to get me pregnant. I also think guys know that pregnancy takes a girl "off the market" and not as available/attractive to other men.

And then I have a friend who has lived with a guy for 5 years. He is insecure as she is advancing in her career and he is ready to settle down. She has caught him sabotaging her birth control.

Using pregnancy to keep someone connected to you, is usually associated with females, but I see more and more signs of males playing this game as well.

In both of my serious relationships (with my ex and now with my husband) it has always been the man that was more eager to forgo birth control and/or have kids.

The men here may be on the other side of the issue, but men wanting their girlfriends to get pregnant is more common then you think.

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Submitted by Kris on Thu, 2010-01-28 06:11

Perhaps but it's not the exact same situation. A woman facing an actual or potential pregnancy that is the result of fraud can undue most of the long term harm caused to her life. She can do this because she can unilaterally surrender her parental responsibilities, and because she has reversible contraceptives available to her that can't be sabotaged [IUD, Depo shot, etc]. Because of this there is a major disincentive for men to even attempt this sort of fraudulent behavior. At the end of the day a woman doesn't have to become a mother if she doesn't choose to.

Men on the other hand have no reversible contraceptives that are immune to sabotage. They also cannot surrender their parental responsibilities, even in the event of statutory rape. So you can't really compare the two situations because of the legal and technological differences.

Although I will concede that there are some male scumbags that will try to impregnate their female partner regardless of her wishes. People who engage in such conduct are sick sociopaths. There's a word for individuals who act on their biological imperative regardless of their partners consent, and it starts with an 'R'. Evil knows no gender.

On a lighter note welcome to our news service. It's good to have you here, and I invite you to learn more about men's rights' issues.

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Submitted by insdel2005 on Fri, 2010-01-29 08:14