Understanding reproductive coercion "turns on its head the myth that it’s always women who trick their boyfriends into getting them pregnant," says Lynn Harris.In the discourse surrounding unwanted pregnancy we often hear about women who aren’t educated on contraception or mysteriously "forget" to take their birth control, but we rarely hear the other side: men who withhold birth control options to deliberately impregnate their sexual partners.
Reproductive coercion, author and Nation contributor Lynn Harris suggests, "turns on its head the notion or the myth or the fable that it’s always women who are trying to trick their boyfriends into getting them pregnant." In her recent Nation article, "When Teen Pregnancy Is No Accident," Harris explains that the men who practice this form of domestic violence do so for reasons as varied as a longing for a nuclear family to a misplaced desire to leave behind a legacy to simply wanting to impregnate as many women as they can. In every case, however, reproductive coercion is about control.
Reproductive coercion is not a new or uncommon form of abuse, but it is an underreported one. Harris and UC Davis professor, researcher, and clinician Elizabeth Miller join The Nation on Grit TV to elaborate on ways to identify and combat this form of abuse.
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