Thread by @LuxAlptraum

This is in my book! Reproductive coercion — which is what trapping someone with a baby is — is broadly understood to be a *male behavior*. (#BuyMyBook: sealpress.com/titles/lux-alp…)

https://twitter.com/beautynbullshit/status/1584625445320163330

Are there women who trick men into getting them pregnant? Sure! But it is vastly more common for men to sabotage their partners’ contraceptive use in the hopes of impregnating them.

Non-consensual condom removal is one strategy, but abusive men — because let’s be real, this is a form of abuse — will also sabotage partners’ pills or bully them out of taking any kind of birth control at all.

When people are in abusive relationships, doctors will frequently recommend IUDs because they are one of the least noticeable forms of BC as well as being set it and forget it, but even that is imperfect: there are stories of people secretly pulling out their partners’ IUDs.

If you've never lived with an abuser (or even a controlling parent), you may not have given much thought to how *difficult* it is to hide evidence of birth control use, but it... is pretty difficult. Rings need to be refrigerated. Pills come in packs that you have to toss out.

One woman I spoke with for my book was regularly taking emergency contraception when she was at work to avoid her abuser getting her pregnant (this stopped when she got an IUD, which was much more cost effective).

Anyway beyond all that: if you're trying to keep a partner, it is *vastly* easier to do that by *getting them pregnant* than getting pregnant yourself. Pregnant people are *immediately* more dependent on partners for resources and support.

In contrast, if your partner is pregnant, it's vastly easier to dip out (as evidenced by many, many people doing that all the time). Are there laws intended to prevent that behavior? Sure, but that doesn't mean they're actually effective (or able to get anything beyond money).

IMO, people who get pregnant without a partner's knowledge or consent are more likely doing that because they want to be pregnant than because they want to "trap" a partner; whereas people who forcibly impregnate others are trying to leave a lasting mark on another person.