Sabotage of contraception, pressure or threats so that a woman becomes pregnant when she does not want it or, on the contrary, so that she terminates a pregnancy that she wishes to continue. These behaviors, while not new, are only beginning to be studied within the spectrum of violence against women. And it’s only recently that researchers have put words to describe them: reproductive coercion.
“He was calculating my ovulation periods and wanted to force me to have sex when he thought I was going to ovulate, and that went on for five years. This testimony, like several others, was collected by researcher Sylvie Lévesque from UQAM, who has been studying the question since 2015.
“I am interested in reproductive health and violence against women, explains Ms.me Lévesque in interview. And at the intersection of these two fields, there is the field of reproductive autonomy which is, for me, an extremely important driving force. »
It was in 2010 that the words reproductive coercion entered the public domain, thanks to a study conducted in the United States by researcher Elizabeth Miller. “We agree that it’s been there for a very long time, but we didn’t necessarily have the words for it and it wasn’t really brought to the attention,” explains M.me Levesque. As studies are still recent, the prevalence of coercion has not yet been formally established. According to the figures available, it would be between 5% and 38%, depending on the populations studied.
Portrait of Quebec
But in Quebec, there was still no data to measure the extent of the phenomenon. After having conducted interviews with women in an attempt to identify the different forms that reproductive coercion could take in the Quebec context, Sylvie Lévesque and her team launched a vast questionnaire, distributed in particular in service outlets where women seek reproductive health and social media services.
Some 500 women answered the questionnaire. But this is a convenience sample, meaning that the women who responded are not necessarily representative of the situation of all women in Quebec. We can even assume that those who chose to answer this questionnaire felt challenged by the situation, either because they themselves had been subjected to coercion, or because they were already aware of the subject. We must therefore be very careful in interpreting these data.
But it is already a first step which makes it possible to say that “it is not an isolated situation” and that it affects “several women”, explains Mr.me Levesque.
According to preliminary figures she compiled, 65% of respondents said they had experienced some form of reproductive coercion in their lifetime. The majority of them named the sabotage of contraception, whether by preventing her from using the contraceptive pill, by removing the condom without her knowledge or by ejaculating inside her when he had previously established that there would be a withdrawal to avoid pregnancy.
Among those who reported having experienced reproductive coercion, 14% said they had been pressured or threatened by the spouse to force them to become pregnant or to prevent them, and 10% said they had been pressured or had been threatened so that they have recourse to abortion or, on the contrary, so that they cannot do so.
No man was solicited as part of this research, and it is wanted that way, answers Sylvie Lévesque. “I do not deny that it is a phenomenon that can exist and that men can be coerced or lied to become fathers. But we have studied it from the point of view of the person who has a pregnancy imposed on him or a risk of pregnancy that he must physically experience. We really started from the principle of the bodily integrity of the person. »
Domestic violence
Whether on the American or Quebec side, research tends to show that reproductive coercion is more present among women who have experienced conjugal violence. In a specific study she was conducting on conjugal violence in the perinatal period, Sylvie Lévesque met “several mothers who brought to light the fact that the pregnancy they experienced and the children they raise were not the result of desired pregnancies.
It is moreover by drawing a parallel with conjugal violence that she illustrates the difference between reproductive coercion and disputes that could arise within a couple about the desire to form a family or not.
To use the term used by the women, they will say that it is not “gross violence”, it is not punches or slaps, so it is a little more difficult to put words to that.
“It’s a bit like when we talk about conflict in a couple versus domestic violence. A conflict is a disagreement. We may be angry, we may not share the same opinion, but there is no power imbalance and coercion. We are not in a situation where a person feels threatened, where they fear for their safety. In reproductive coercion, it’s a bit the same thing. It’s not just a situation where one partner says he doesn’t want a child, while the other wants one and we end up in a dead end wondering if we continue the relationship or not. It is a situation where a person feels coerced and does not have access to the free exercise of their reproductive rights. »
Another thing that emerged from the interviews with the women is that they have difficulty putting their experiences into words. “To use the term used by the women, they will say that it is not ‘gross violence’, it is not punches or slaps, so it is a little more difficult to put into words on that. “But they do not trivialize their experience that they will” live very strongly in their body, “says Mme Levesque.
“What the results tell me is that we still have a lot of education and awareness to do so that it becomes as well known as the other forms of violence that women can experience. »