A contribution to understanding all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls
UNFPA in collaboration with MSI Reproductive Choices | Launching Tuesday 28 April 2026, 07:30 AEST | Women Deliver 2026, Melbourne
What This Publication Is
Shining a Light on Reproductive Violence is a landmark technical paper produced by UNFPA in collaboration with MSI Reproductive Choices and a coalition of 13 global organisations including IPPF, Ipas, FIGO, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Women Enabled International.
It is the first publication of its kind to propose a unified, internationally agreed definition and conceptual framework for reproductive violence as a distinct form of gender-based violence. Developed through consultation with 38 SRHR and GBV experts and 22 organisations, it is intended to inform future policy, programming, advocacy and legal frameworks across disciplines and contexts worldwide.
Why It Matters
Forced sterilisation, reproductive coercion, obstetric violence and the denial of abortion care are all forms of gender-based violence. Yet they have historically been treated as separate issues – analysed in fragmented legal, health and humanitarian frameworks – obscuring shared patterns of discrimination and power, weakening accountability, and leaving survivors without recognition or remedy.
This paper brings them together under one umbrella for the first time, with UN authority behind it. It names reproductive violence as a unified category of GBV and proposes a shared framework for recognition across disciplines and contexts.
| As UNFPA Deputy Executive Director Pio Smith writes: “At a time when sexual and reproductive health and rights are increasingly contested, the consequences for bodily autonomy, health and survival can no longer be ignored.” |
The Definition
The paper proposes the following definition – the first to be jointly agreed by UNFPA and MSI Reproductive Choices:
| Reproductive violence is a form of gender-based violence against women and girls that compromises reproductive autonomy, agency and self-determination; that is, individuals’ ability to decide whether, when, how and under what conditions to become pregnant, give birth and raise children, as defined at the ICPD. This includes, but is not limited to, physical, sexual, emotional, psychosocial, economic, normative and symbolic abuse, force, coercion or exploitation within relationships, families, communities, institutions and societies. |
Critically, the definition includes normative and symbolic abuse – meaning cultural norms, institutional barriers and restrictive policies are recognised as forms of reproductive violence, not only interpersonal acts. Reproductive violence is understood as occurring across all levels of society, from intimate relationships to community, institutions and state law and policy.
MSI Reproductive Choices – Role in This Publication
MSI Reproductive Choices has been a key partner in the development of this framework. MSI’s Policy and External Relations team contributed substantive expertise to the conceptual development and review of the paper, and MSI’s prior work on reproductive coercion in the Asia Pacific region informs its evidence base.
Bonney Corbin, Director of Policy and External Relations at MSI Asia Pacific, part of MSI Reproductive Choice’s global partnership, subject matter expert on reproductive violence and is available for media interviews and background briefings.
