Reproductive coercion refers to a partner's attempts to control a woman's reproductive choices: He might pressure her to become pregnant or continue with an unintended pregnancy, for instance, or interfere with her birth control so she becomes pregnant against her will.
In studies, 10 percent to 20 percent of adult women say they've been victims of reproductive coercion.
But the scope of the problem among teenage girls is unknown, according to Northridge.
As a first step, she said, she and her colleagues surveyed girls who were likely to be at increased risk: 14- to 17-year-olds seen at health clinics in the Bronx, a borough of New York City with high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
And it turned out that reproductive coercion was surprisingly common -- on par with what's been seen among young adult women, Northridge said.
Of the 77 girls surveyed, 16 percent said they'd ever had a boyfriend try to control their reproductive health -- usually by telling them not to use birth control or by removing his condom during sex. In some cases, the girls said a partner had forced them to have sex without a condom.
"This type of abuse definitely happens in the context of a controlling relationship," said Northridge, who presented the findings May 3 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting, in Baltimore.
Some teen girls coerced into pregnancy, study says
