Association Between Sexual Violence and Unintended Pregnancy Among Young Girls in South Africa

Abstract Background: Unintended pregnancy has dire consequences on the health and socioeconomic wellbeing of young girls (aged 15–24 years). While most studies tend to focus on lack of access to contraceptive information and services, and poverty as the main contributing factor to early-unintended pregnancies, the influence of sexual violence has received limited attention. Understanding the link between sexual violence and unintended pregnancy is critical towards developing a multifaceted intervention to reduce unintended pregnancies among young girls in South Africa, a country with high teenage pregnancy rates.Methods: Drawing from cross-sectional data obtained among young girls in a South African university between June and November 2018, we estimated the magnitude of unintended pregnancy among young girls and also examined the effect of sexual violence on unintended pregnancy. A final sample of 451 girls aged 17–24 years, selected using stratified sampling, were included in the analysis. We used adjusted and unadjusted logistic regression analysis to examine the effect of sexual violence on unintended pregnancy.Results: The analysis shows that 41.9% of all respondents had experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 25.9% of those unintended pregnancies ended in abortions. Unintended pregnancy was higher among survivors of sexual violence (57.0%) compared to those who never experienced sexual abuse (36.8%). In the multivariable analysis, sexual violence was consistently and robustly associated with increased odds of having an unintended pregnancy (AOR:1.76; 95% CI: 1.07–2.90).Conclusion: Addressing unintended pregnancies among young girls in South Africa requires interventions that not only increase access to contraceptive information and services, but also reduce sexual violence and cater for survivors.