Incidents of non-armed conflict forced pregnancy among women of African descent: Case studies in South Africa, Jamaica, and the United States

Forced pregnancy is defined by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a crime that is committed when captors forcefully impregnate women and hold them hostage until they cannot safely abort the unborn child. Because of this definition's underlying emphasis on widespread attack, ethnic cleansing, and military control, this crime is most often associated with armed military conflict. However, this act of injustice may also have implications for the reproductive health of women, particularly women of African descent, who are not involved in armed conflict; resulting from rape/sexual coercion and lack of contraception control—both of which also facilitate armed conflict forced pregnancy. In order to demonstrate that forced pregnancy can indeed take place outside of armed conflict, this study used a cross-sectional correlational approach to examine the relationship between rape/sexual coercion, lack of contraception control, and pregnancy wantedness among women of African descent in South Africa, Jamaica, and the United States. Results conveyed that rape/sexual coercion and lack of contraception control increase the risk for unwanted pregnancy; indicating that armed and non-armed conflict forced pregnancy occur within a different context, but have the same facilitating factors and the same outcome—unwanted pregnancy that results from force. This exploratory study shows that non-armed conflict forced pregnancy is a global health issue that warrants further research in order to determine more causal associations between non-armed conflict forced pregnancy and its facilitating factors such that the health-related needs of affected women and children can be addressed in an evidence-based and systematic way.