Hollywood drama is something that many people (including myself) have come to expect. Regardless of how you feel about it, our culture has created a system that places a value on people. The power of being famous comes with the price of being under more scrutiny than an average person.
Actress Nicki Reed, known for her role in the Twilight series and her husband Ian Somerhalder, known for his role on the Vampire Diaries are recent examples of this trend.
Recently, in an interview with Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy Podcast, Reed and Somerhalder spoke about having children after they got married and how they decided to start trying. Trouble within the interview started when Somerhalder mentioned that while they were on vacation in the summer of 2016 he threw out all of Reed’s birth control pills.
“It was the beginning of the pack, so I had to pop all those suckers out.” He goes on to add, “We decided that we wanted to have children together and it was just time.
But unbeknownst to poor Nikki, she didn’t realize that I was going to go in her purse and take out her birth control.” These statements led many to believe that this situation sounded like reproductive coercion.
Reproductive Coercion is “a form of domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, where behavior concerning reproductive health is used to maintain power, control, and domination within a relationship and over a partner through an unwanted pregnancy.” This type of coercion can involve putting pressure on a person to get pregnant, or can include birth control sabotage which includes hiding birth control pills or poking holes in condoms.
While both Reed and Somerhalder quickly denied this being the case, many spoke out saying it was wrong for Somerhalder was wrong to try and exercise this kind of control over his wife’s body and that him recording her freaking out over “losing” her birth control pills isn’t alright, or normal. Following the backlash, they released a joint statement together stating:
“To anyone who has been affected by reproductive coercion, we are deeply sorry. That is an extremely serious issue, and women’s rights is something is incredibly important to the both of us. It is something we’ve been very vocal about, and something that is very close to our heats. We never expected a lighthearted interview we did poking fun at EACH OTHER and how WE chose together to get pregnant, a goofy moment in Barcelona with our two best friends and the anticipation of the start of our journey together as we went from two to three, to turn into something representing a very serious matter. However, if this somehow shed light on a topic that definitely needs mainstream attention, then we are grateful for the unintended consequence. It’s a shame that outlets chose this as their way into a very serious discussion, as we are certainly not qualified to be the faces of this topic. We are two happily married people who chose TOGETHER to have a baby. The end. Love, Nicki and Ian
Although reproductive coercion may not have been the case in this situation, it is for many women throughout the world. Even now in 2017 women are not always granted autonomy of their bodies and their reproductive health. It’s important for these types of hard discussions to be had, as these are not issues that simply just go away. Just like any other form of abuse this isn’t something that simply goes away.
If you or someone you know has experienced this or any other type of abuse, available National Hotlines and resources include:
- National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
- Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE (4673)