CONTENTS
- The World Takes Notice
- Intimate Partner Abuse
- Sexual Coercion
- Impact on Reproductive Health
- Threats to Health and Development
- Health Providers Play a Key Role
- An Agenda for Change
HIGHLIGHTS
- What lies behind violence?
- Culture: a double-edged sword
- Child sexual abuse is widespread
- Violence harms women in many different ways
- *Pullout guide: What Health Providers Can Do
- Responding to violence: Lessons learned
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The Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) is a research and advocacy organization that seeks to integrate concern for gender equity and social justice into international health policy and practice. CHANGE staff can be reached by e-mail at change@genderhealth.org or at http://www.genderhealth.org.
December, 1999
Series L, Number 11
Issues in World Health
Reproductive Health
Physical and sexual abuse lie behind some of the most intractable reproductive health issues of our times—unwanted pregnancies, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and complications of pregnancy. A growing number of studies document the ways in which violence by intimate partners and sexual coercion undermine women's sexual and reproductive autonomy and jeopardize their health.
Violence operates through multiple pathways to affect women's sexual and reproductive health (see Figure 2). Physical violence and sexual abuse can put women at risk of infection and unwanted pregnancies directly, if women are forced to have sex, for example, or fear using contraception or condoms because of their partners' reaction. A history of sexual abuse in childhood also can lead to unwanted pregnancies and STIs indirectly by increasing sexual risk-taking in adolescence and adulthood.
 Cousins/Women and Law in Southern Africa (500) |
| In some countries, such as Zimbabwe, women's groups have prepared manuals (500) and other materials to help family, friends, and social services support the victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. |
