The Facts on Reproductive Health and Violence Against Women
Violence against women and girls is a global epidemic that affects the health and economic
stability of women, their families, and their communities. Violence affects every aspect of
women’s lives – from their personal health and safety, to the safety of their families, to their
ability to earn a living. While domestic violence is a global problem, women in developing
countries face particular challenges. Intimate partner violence against women has serious
consequences for maternal mortality and child survival in addition to having detrimental effects
on a nation’s social and economic growth.
• The United Nations Development Fund for Women estimates that at least one of every
three women globally will be beaten, raped, or otherwise abused during her lifetime. In
most cases, the abuser is a member of her own family.1
• Sexual violence is a pervasive global health and human rights problem. In some
countries, approximately one in four women and girls over age 15 may experience sexual
violence by an intimate partner at some points in their lives, and rates of sexual abuse by
non-partners range from one to 12 percent over the course of a woman’s lifetime.2
• A 2005 World Health Organization study found that of 15 sites in ten countries –
representing diverse cultural settings – the proportion of ever-partnered women who had
experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime ranged from 15
percent in Japan to 71 percent in Ethiopia. At least one in five women reporting physical
abuse had never before told anyone about it.3
• In the same study, four to 12 percent of women who had been pregnant reported having
been beaten during pregnancy, and more than half of these women had been kicked or
punched in the abdomen during pregnancy. Women who reported physical or sexual
violence by a partner were also more likely to report having had at least one induced
abortion or miscarriage than women who did not report abuse. 4
• Violence and the threat of violence against women contributes to the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Numerous studies indicate that violence dramatically increases the
vulnerability of women and girls to HIV/AIDS by making it difficult or impossible for
them to abstain from sex, get their partners to be faithful, or use a condom. Women
account for half of all people living with HIV worldwide, and nearly 60 percent of HIV
infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last 10 years, the proportion of women among
people living with HIV has remained stable globally, but has increased in many regions.5
• The U.S. State Department reports approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across
borders around the world each year, which does not include the millions of people
trafficked within their own countries. Worldwide, four in five trafficking victims are
women and girls, and up to half are minors.6
The Facts on International Gender-Based Violence
• An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the
consequences of female genital mutilation or cutting, with the majority of these instances
taking place in Africa and the Middle East.7
• Sexual violence and rape have been used during armed conflict to torture, injure and
degrade women, and have been a feature of recent conflicts around the world, including
those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Darfur region of Sudan, Rwanda, and the
former Yugoslavia. In 2008, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution
that declares rape and sexual violence to be weapons of war, and demanded an end to
sexual violence against civilians in armed conflicts around the world. The resolution
says, in part, that sexual violence is being used as “a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate,
instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate” civilians in certain ethnic groups and
communities. 8
• Domestic and sexual violence in the United Kingdom costs the country £5.7 billion per
year, including costs to the criminal justice system, health care costs, housing and the loss
to the economy.9 In the United States, the health care cost of intimate partner rape,
physical assault and stalking totals $5.8 billion each year, nearly $4.1 billion of which is
for direct medical and mental health care services. Lost productivity from paid work and
household chores and lifetime earnings lost by homicide victims total nearly $1.8
billion.10
1 United Nations Development Fund for Women. 2003. Not A Minute More: Ending Violence Against Women..
Retrieved on December 4, 2008 from http://www.unifem.org/resources/item_detail.php?ProductID=7.
2 García-Moreno et al. 2005. WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against
Women. World Health Organization. Retrieved on December 4, 2008 from
http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/.
3 García-Moreno et al. 2005. WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against
Women. World Health Organization. Retrieved on December 4, 2008 from
http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/.
4 García-Moreno et al. 2005. WHO Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against
Women. World Health Organization. Retrieved on December 4, 2008 from
http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/.
5 The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. 2006. Quick Facts. Retrieved on December 9, 2008 from
http://womenandaids.unaids.org/.
6 U.S. State Department. 2007. Trafficking in Person’s Report, Released by the Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons. Retrieved on December 5, 2008 from
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/82902.pdf.
7 World Health Organization. 2008. Female Genital Mutilation Fact Sheet. Retrieved on December 5, 2008 at
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/index.html .
8 United Nations Security Council. June 19, 2008. United Nations Security Council 5916th Meeting, Resolution
1820. “Security Council Demands Immediate and Complete Halt to Acts of Sexual Violence,” Retrieved on
December 5, 2008 at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sc9364.doc.htm.
9 Walby, S. 2004. Women and Equality Unit. “The Cost of Domestic Violence.” Retrieved on December 10, 2008
from http://www.equalities.gov.uk/research/WEU_2004_Walby-costdomesticviolence_(2).pdf.
10 Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Retrieved January 9, 2004 from
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/IPVBook-Final-Feb18.pdf.
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