By Kayla McKiski

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- A staggering number of teen girls are experiencing an insidious form of relationship abuse: reproductive coercion.

Researchers report that it affects 1 in 8 adolescent girls who are sexually active.

Reproductive coercion is a form of abuse in which a girl or woman is pressured into pregnancy. From a male partner threatening to leave if his female partner refuses to have his baby, to poking holes in condoms before sex, the coercion can take shape in a variety of ways.

"Reproductive coercion is a form of power and control exerted via influencing women's health, sexuality and health care behavior," said study co-author Heather McCauley, an assistant professor of social work at Michigan State University. She added that the findings highlight a broader public health issue.

"Our society so often normalizes the abusive experiences girls and women have in their relationships, making it difficult for young people to recognize that what they are experiencing is not healthy," McCauley said.

Researchers described the new study -- published in the August issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology -- as the largest look to date at how many teen girls face this pressure. Most studies of reproductive coercion have focused on young adult women.

For the study, McCauley and her colleagues analyzed data collected from 550 sexually active girls between age 14 and 19 at eight school-based health centers in California in 2012-2013.

Of those, 12% reported reproductive coercion in the previous three months, the study found.

In all, 17% reported physical or sexual abuse, and those who experienced reproductive coercion had four times higher odds for other types of abuse.

In many cases, the abusers were much older. The study found that girls exposed to both reproductive coercion and other relationship abuse were more likely to have a sexual partner who was five or more years their senior.

Though prior studies have found racial differences in reproductive coercion, with black women more likely than whites to be victimized, this one did not, McCauley said. Her team plans further study to try to learn why.