Recognizing and Responding to Reproductive Coercion and Abuse: Insights From Australian Legal Sector
This webinar was presented and recorded on September 18, 2025.
Description
Reproductive coercion and abuse (RCA) is a prevalent form of intimate partner violence. However, this violence remains largely unacknowledged within the family law system in Canada, and jurisdictions across the globe. This webinar examines the findings from a groundbreaking report produced by South-East Monash Legal Service Inc. (SMLS) exploring the issue of RCA in the Australian legal system – including the issue of RCA, legal practitioner competency in responding to RCA, and effective interventions for the legal system to support RCA disclosure.
Speakers
Susan Saldanha is a Research Fellow at the SPHERE NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women in Primary Care at Monash University. Her research focuses on strengthening general practice responses to reproductive coercion. Susan recently submitted her PhD at Monash University (2025), which applied a mixed-methods approach, including scoping reviews, qualitative interviews, and a cross-sectional survey, to examine how reproductive coercion is experienced, recognised, and addressed in Australian general practice.
She has experience researching violence against women across academic, health, and legal settings, and has delivered evidence-based sexual violence prevention programs. Drawing on her experiences as a migrant, Susan is committed to interdisciplinary approaches that advance reproductive health, address gender-based violence, and promote trauma-informed, equitable models of care in primary healthcare.
All our resources are open-access and can be shared (e.g., linked, downloaded and sent) or cited with credit. If you would like to adapt and/or edit, translate, or embed/upload our content on your website/training materials (e.g., Webinar video), please email us at fvfl-vfdf@uwo.ca so that we can work together to do so.
