Thread by @s_ayebkarlsson

#OrangeTheWorld - A thread on reproductive control, coercion and entrapment 🧵

As a #trapped populations scholar, I have lately spent a lot of time thinking about reproductive #coercion, #control and #entrapment. (i)

The #familycourts appear to fail to understand, acknowledge and interrupt these dynamics of #coercivecontrol in their current system. (ii)

Many perpetrators of #coercivecontrol will already begin to put pressure on or introduce the idea of a child during the early love bombing phase. (iii)

This often comes as a surprise to the victim-survivor: ‘Why would someone propose such a thing just a few weeks or months after meeting me?’ ‘Because this is true love’, he replies. (iv)

The perpetrator knows that a #child will strategically enable #power and #control over their victim for life and particularly for the upcoming 18 years. Some perpetrators who experiences reluctance from the victim will go as far as to destroy, hide or exchange contraceptives. (v)

As the victim-survivor gets #pregnant, the #abuse, #aggression and #hostility by the perpetrator tend to increase. This is because the #perpetrator feels #safe in his position of regained #power and #control. (vi)

Many #abandons the #mother and #child at this point only to return months or years later, others flip from having #coerced the victim-survivor into getting #pregnant to attempting to #force them to have an #abortion. (vii)

This gives a feeling of #ultimate #control - ‘I #decide when you conceive and I decide whether you carry that baby to term’. (iix)

#coercivecontrol #16DaysOfActivism #16DaysOfActivismAgainstGBV

Others begin to physically #abuse the victim-survivor as soon as they get #pregnant. This is also because the perpetrator feels a #loss of control, attention and considers the child as a threat to their ultimate position of being the most important person in the victim life. (ix)

Many of these cases will end up in the #familycourts. Often because the perpetrator files a #malicious and #vexatious court application. A perpetrator who abandoned the #mother and #child will claim #ParentalAlienation. (x)

Another whose abuse intensified with the pregnancy will claim to be the ‘real’ #victim of #DomesticAbuse. Many will fiercely claim having witnessed and experienced #child #abuse, #neglect, #abduction, domestic abuse and this is when the #familycourt system gets it so wrong. (xi)

The #court will immediately go with the let’s do things as how we always have done things - #contact at #all #cost. No matter the #abuse, abandonment or true aim to #legally #control and coerce the victim. (xii)

The #court may not be aware that they are facilitating the #legal #entrapment planned in detail and for an extensive time period by the perpetrator but they do. (xiii)

This is why it is so crucial that the #familycourts are aware of these dynamics of #coercivecontrol, know how to spot them and put protective measures in place for the victim-survivors. (xiv)

There are clear #directions around #vexatious #court #applications but I never see these being applied. There are clear directions on when a section 91(14) / #barring order should be used to #protect #victims of #domesticabuse. (xv)

I never see them being applied to protect #victim-survivors, instead the #familycourt will tap into the #perpetrator’s #DARVO narratives. (xvi)

#16DaysofActivism2022 #DomesticViolence #GenderBasedViolence #DomesticAbuse #16Days

Suddenly, instead of being #protected by the #court, the victim-survivor finds themselves being under #attack by a well tailored network #system of #abuse created by the perpetrator to #continue his #control through multiple parties. (xvii)

We must do better - #change is coming!

Another important 🧵 on this topic here:

https://twitter.com/joannaiswriting/status/1513020686381551621

https://twitter.com/joannaiswriting/status/1599076298818584577