What motivates someone to manipulate their partner's reproductive choices?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-04-17 04:00

Australia; VIC

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Reproductive coercion and abuse - using abusive tactics to manipulate a partner's reproductive choices - may often but not always be driven by a wider pattern of coercive control, according to a small Australian study. The team conducted in-depth interviews with 29 women and one non-binary person who said they had been either forced to get pregnant, forced to stay pregnant or forced to end a pregnancy by a partner or family member, and identified four main themes in the likely reasons the perpetrators, all male partners, did what they did. The researchers say partners whose behaviour was aimed at preventing pregnancy mostly seemed to be acting out of self-interest, while coercive behaviour to force a partner to become pregnant was often driven by motivation to be seen as the 'perfect father', to create a weapon to control the partner, or through a sense of entitlement and desire to control a partner's body.