The 3rd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Research and Public Health Proceedings Impact of law against domestic violence (DV) on the reproduc- tive health of abuse victims in India. Vaishali Patil, Jeff Luck 1 Oregon State University, 1500 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331 * Correspondence: patilva@oregonstate.edu; Jeff.Luck@oregonstate.edu Abstract: Objectives: Assess the effect of law against DV on the prevalence of abuse and reproduc- tive health. Methods: I analyzed DV data from National Family Health Surveys (NFHS 3&4- 2005- 06 and 2015-16) of India. The analytical sample was 69,438 NFHS3; n=66,013 NFHS4 of ever-married women aged 15-49 years. The main outcomes were unwanted pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, contraceptive use, age of first birth, and sexually transmitted infections in abuse victims and DV was the main independent variable. Covariates choice was guided by the socioecological model. I used the difference-in-difference model to compare the prevalence between the two surveys. Re- sults: The prevalence of DV was 39.8% in 2005-06 and 33.3% in 2015-16. In 2005 38.5% of victims were sterilized versus 1% having partner sterilized. In 2015 41% of victims were sterilized and only 0.29% had partners sterilized. There was no difference in the prevalence of victims experiencing STI between NFHS3 (16.5%) and NFHS4 (16.2%). About 29% did not want a pregnancy in 2005 versus 16.5% in 2015; 12.7% had terminated pregnancy in 2005 versus 13.7% in 2015; 66.4% had first birth before 20 years in 2005 versus 49% in 2015. The difference in female sterilization, male sterilization, unwanted pregnancy, and termination of pregnancy between two surveys was not significant. The probability of adolescent pregnancy increased by 3.8% points (p<0.001) and STIs decreased by 1% points (p<0.01) in 2015. Conclusion: There was a mixed effect on reproductive health outcomes re- lated to DV post-law. There is a need for stringent measures against DV to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women in India. Keywords: Domestic violence; reproductive health; laws against domestic violence Introduction Gender inequity, discrimination, domestic violence, lack of autonomy are some com- mon but rampant issues in many parts of the world, more so in Asian countries. 1,2 Women face discrimination, in workplaces; they lack control in nearly all aspects of their life whether it is their upbringing, their marriage, their finances, sexual and reproductive health and so on. 1 They are considered secondary citizens who need to be controlled and driven throughout their lives by men whether as father/s, brother/s, husband/s or son/s. The deeply embedded misogynistic attitudes have contributed immensely to a wide- spread culture of violence against women. 3,4 The foundations of domestic violence against women go deep in the evolutionary history of humans where every attempt was made to establish tyranny over women. 5 Though domestic violence is not restricted to a single gender, women tend to have a greater probability of receiving it due to traditional patriarchal system, emotional and economic dependence and inherent biological weakness. 5 Women across the world gained a foothold for their cause with the ‘Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women’ adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 20, 1993. 6 The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development went a step further and drew links between violence against women and their reproductive health Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and insti- tutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/li- censes/by/4.0/).