15 A study in Leon, Nicaragua, found that violence against pregnant women was associated with a threefold increase in low birth-weight babies. 16 Blunt abdominal trauma can lead to foetal death or low birth weight by provoking pre-term delivery. 17 Violence may also affect the outcome of pregnancies indirectly by increasing a woman's likelihood of engaging in harmful behaviour such as smoking and alcohol and drug abuse, all of which have been linked to pregnancy complications and low birth weight. Many STDs and reproductive tract infections could be prevented if men routinely wore condoms when engaging in sex and refrained from having sex when the woman complained of soreness or other problems. Many women are afraid to ask their partners to wear condoms during sex for fear of violent reactions.
Rape victims are especially at risk of infection.
Up to 30 per cent of women raped in the United States every year, for instance, develop an STD as a result. Molestation of young girls is another profoundly disturbing aspect of this problem. A study in Zaria, Nigeria, for example, found that 16 per cent of hospital patients with sexually transmitted infections were under age 5. At the Genito-Urinary Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, doctors discovered that more than 900 children under age 12 had been treated for an STD in 1990 alone. 21 Persistent gynaecological problems Physical and sexual abuse also increases a woman's risk for a number of common gynaecological disorders, including chronic pelvic pain.