The truth is, women are often coerced into getting an abortion. In a 2005 study, researchers found that 34 percent of the women they surveyed who were recruited from a domestic violence program said they had been pressured into getting an abortion by their partners. A 2010 Guttmacher Institute study affirms that reproductive control, including forced abortions, is a huge problem among women who have suffered domestic abuse at the hands of a partner.

While the exact numbers of how many women are pressured by others into having an abortion is unknown, multiple studies have affirmed that it’s not at all uncommon. Women who have had an abortion are also more likely to have been abused by their partners within a year of getting an abortion. In other words, abusive men often use abortion as a means to control and hurt their female partners.

Abortion can also be psychologically traumatic. A 2011 study from the British Journal of Psychology found that post-abortive women faced an increased risk of mental health issues: “Women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10% of the incidence of mental health problems was shown to be attributable to abortion,” the study states.