Associations Between Unintended Pregnancy, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault in a Population of Queensland Women

Leah S Sharman; Heather Douglas; Elizabeth Price; Nicola Sheeran; Genevieve A Dingle

doi:10.1080/13218719.2018.1510347

Associations Between Unintended Pregnancy, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault in a Population of Queensland Women

Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2018 Oct 24;26(4):541-552. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2018.1510347. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Leah S Sharman¹, Heather Douglas², Elizabeth Price³, Nicola Sheeran⁴, Genevieve A Dingle¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
² T.C.Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
³ Children by Choice, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁴ School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, QLD, Australia.

Abstract

This study aimed to establish the proportion of women seeking information regarding unintended pregnancy in the context of domestic violence (DV) and/or sexual assault (SA) experiences in Queensland. Mental health, sociodemographic variables, and gestation at first and repeated contacts were examined for 6249 women primarily seeking information regarding abortion options during an unintended pregnancy over the 5-year period from July 2012 to June 2017. Reports of DV and SA and associations with mental health issues increased significantly across the 5 years. First contact rates of disclosure were 12.2% for DV and 3% for SA, and higher among repeat contacts (38.1% for DV and 14.1% for SA), with recurring contact facilitating violence disclosure. Restricting access to abortions in the context of violence impedes a woman's agency in attempts to separate from violence and highlights the need for safe, supportive, and accessible services, to assist in screening and assisting with violence.

Keywords: Abortion; domestic violence; sexual assault; unplanned pregnancy.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the BEL Faculty Collaborative Seeding Grant, University of Queensland 2018; and an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship [Grant FT140100796].