Original Source:
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425-2233, USA. (Editor's Note: This is a 1996 study— Rape-related pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a national sample of women.)
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
We attempted to determine the national rape-related pregnancy rate and provide descriptive characteristics of pregnancies that result from rape.
STUDY DESIGN:
A national probability sample of 4008 adult American women took part in a 3-year longitudinal survey that assessed the prevalence and incidence of rape and related physical and mental health outcomes.
RESULTS:
The national rape-related pregnancy rate is 5.0% per rape among victims of reproductive age (aged 12 to 45); among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year. Among 34 cases of rape-related pregnancy, the majority occurred among adolescents and resulted from assault by a known, often related perpetrator. Only 11.7% of these victims received immediate medical attention after the assault, and 47.1% received no medical attention related to the rape. A total 32.4% of these victims did not discover they were pregnant until they had already entered the second trimester; 32.2% opted to keep the infant whereas 50% underwent abortion and 5.9% placed the infant for adoption; an additional 11.8% had spontaneous abortion.
CONCLUSIONS:
Rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency. It is a cause of many unwanted pregnancies and is closely linked with family and domestic violence. As we address the epidemic of unintended pregnancies in the United States, greater attention and effort should be aimed at preventing and identifying unwanted pregnancies that result from sexual victimization.
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Editor's Personal Note: After giving birth to our third daughter in Summit, New Jersey, I was walking the halls of the maternity and nursery wards several days later. I noticed a pre-teen girl in robe and slippers on the ward and was surprised she was there. Thinking she was wandering from a pediatric floor to ours, I asked a nurse if she knew why she was there. She replied that she was a victim of incest and had given birth.
She was 12.
I would wave to her in her room and call out over the next few days, never seeing a family visitor.
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