Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40287771›Full record

ArticleReproductive health2025

Domestic violence laws and women's unmet need for family planning: Quasi-experimental evidence from Africa.

Pragya Bhuwania, Amy Raub, Aleta Sprague, Alfredo Martin, Bijetri Bose, Rachel Kidman, Jody Heymann

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In one paragraph

Article in Reproductive health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Pragya BhuwaniaWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA. pragyabhuwania@ucla.edu.
Amy RaubWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA.
Aleta SpragueWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA.
Alfredo MartinWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA.
Bijetri BoseWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA.
Rachel KidmanDepartment of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-8338, USA.
Jody HeymannWORLD Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, 621 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 2225 LSB90095, USA.

Funding

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation 26870
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundApproximately 164 million women report an unmet need for family planning globally. This has far-reaching consequences for the health of women and their children. Women's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is strongly linked to increased unmet need as IPV likely affects both women's desire for contraception and their ability to access it. Around 245 million women were subject to physical and/or sexual IPV by an intimate partner in the past twelve months alone, making it the most common form of violence against women. Yet, laws that prohibit domestic violence (DV) are not universal and countries actively debate whether legal provisions are effective in deterring and reducing its harmful impacts. This study examines the impact of DV laws on women's unmet need for family planning.

methodsWe built new data on DV laws adoption in Africa and used the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data collected between 2000 and 2021 across 23 African countries for outcomes data. Exploiting the staggered adoption of DV laws across the continent, we used a difference-in-differences study design to estimate the impact of DV laws in the treated countries compared to countries without such laws.

resultsWe find that DV laws reduced women's unmet need for family planning by 6.2% points, 95% CI [- 9.2, - 3.2], a 20.5% reduction from the mean. Positive impacts were observed in 6 countries across multiple model specifications. While the impacts were largely broad-based across wealth, age, geography, and education categories, we found no significant impacts for women younger than 20 years of age and those without formal education. These findings were robust to alternative model specifications.

conclusionsOur findings demonstrate that countries can significantly benefit from prohibiting DV as a fundamental step towards addressing women's unmet need for family planning and promoting their reproductive health. While fully addressing IPV and women's unmet need may require a range of complementary interventions, especially among marginalized populations, DV laws play a crucial role in improving women's control over their reproductive health.

Indexed as

Domestic ViolenceFamily Planning ServicesHealth Services Needs and DemandIntimate Partner ViolenceAdolescentAdultAfricaFemaleHealth Services AccessibilityHumansMiddle AgedYoung AdultAfricaEffectivenessIntimate partner violenceLaws against domestic violenceReproductive health rightsWomen’s unmet need for family planning

Identifiers

PMID40287771
PMCPMC12034134

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LicenceCC BY
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.