My name is Patricia Underwood and I am a registered nurse and secretary of the American Nurses Association. Sadly enough, physical abuse frequently starts during pregnancy. Many are not. Nor can we look to a particular segment of the population as the source of domestic violence.
Domestic violence cuts across all economic, racial and cultural boundaries.
It's an equal-opportunity crime. We can start by joining the Family Violence Prevention Fund's effort to promote the routine screening of each and every woman for domestic violence. That does not just mean women who come to the E.R. but each and every woman who is hospitalized or comes to the nurse practitioner's or doctor's office. To the community clinic. As well as the women we visit in their homes.