Teen Girls Report Abusive Boyfriends Try To Get Them Pregnant

[ThomCat]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070920173421.htm

Wow. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. Guys try to get girls pregnant as a way of dominating and controlling them. :(

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Seven years ago, Elizabeth Miller was a volunteer physician in a community-based clinic in Boston, Mass., which offered confidential services to teens.

She is still haunted by the memory of a 15-year old girl who asked her for a pregnancy test. It was negative, but two weeks later the girl was treated for a severe head injury in a nearby emergency room. The girl's boyfriend had pushed her down a flight of stairs.

"I assumed all she needed was to be educated about her contraceptive options," Miller recalled. "Later, I wondered what I had missed. Could I have asked a question that would have identified that she was in an abusive relationship?"

That nagging question inspired Miller, now a pediatrician with UC Davis Children's Hospital, to dedicate her career to trying to understand the unique characteristics of adolescent partner violence.