Braverly
The
ISSUE
#02 SPRING 2021
YOUR SUPPORT AT WORK FOR SURVIVORS OF VIOLENCE IN PEEL REGION
B E YON D MOTH E R ’ S DAY Gender-based violence kills more pregnant women every year than any other cause.
Photo: Christa Couture (Jen Squires)
On May 9th, 2020, we will celebrate Mother’s Day, an occasion that honours mothers, mother figures, and the maternal bonds that connect them with their kin. The occasion is based upon a common understanding of womanhood, pregnancy, and filial relationships. In the spirit of embracing a broader definition of parenthood that is not rigid but rather encompasses the many diverse communities we serve, this edition of the Braverly will focus on the heightened risk of violence faced by adolescent women, trans men, sex workers, and people living with disabilities. Gender-based violence kills more pregnant women every year than any other cause. Communities that exist on the periphery of popular conceptions of motherhood face unique challenges during pregnancy, and the failure to explicitly attend to these experiences reproduces the harms that engender violence to begin with. Adolescent girls and women face an elevated risk of violence from their partners, including reproductive coercion, or forced pregnancy. A 2019 study published in the journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology determined that 1 in 8 sexually active high school girls had experienced reproductive coercion over a three-month period. Transgender men and sex workers, though two distinct communities, are similarly forced (cont’d, pg. 2) CONTINUED ON PAGE
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