Things you could say to patients experiencing reproductive coercion

Validate the patient’s experience. Additionally, practitioners could say:

• What you are describing sounds like “reproductive coercion”. This is when someone tries to deliberately control your decisions about pregnancy, contraception or termination. It is a form of abuse and it is not ok.

• It may feel like you have no choice, but we can support you to either have a termination or continue with pregnancy. Support is available either way.

• It‘s your body, it‘s your choice but I understand you‘ve got lots of pressures that impact your decision.

• Being forced to have a termination doesn’t make you a bad person.

• Just because you had a termination in the past doesn‘t mean you won‘t be a good mother now.

• You can be a good mother and still have a termination. Mothers have to make termination decisions too.

• Parenting can be really hard. It’s not unusual to feel resentful of your kids sometimes, especially if it wasn’t your choice to become a parent.

• Society often presents motherhood as joyful and natural, but it can be really hard to bond with your child when a partner has controlled your pregnancy.

Things you could do to support patients experiencing reproductive coercion

The CARE principles apply here Additionally, practitioners could:

• Talk about how it’s normal to have conflicting thoughts and emotions about the relationship and mothering.

• Provide information or referral to a relevant support group.

• Ask the woman about what she thinks the motivation of the partner is for her to be pregnant. If it is part of a control pattern she might be at greater risk for her safety.

• Explore contraceptive options that may be less detectable by a partner.