Several mothers told me stories about their older boyfriends “tricking” them into getting pregnant, which they saw as comparable to the other forms of abuse and domination. For example, when she was 13, Diana’s 18-year-old boyfriend, Matt, told her that he had been diagnosed by his doctor as infertile, so he did not need to use a condom. Similarly, LaNiece’s 20-year-old boyfriend told her that he couldn’t get her pregnant:
Well, I was only 13, keep that in mind, cause he told me, “Oh I can’t have kids, I can’t have kids.” And I believed him I was like, “Oh, okay.” You know, I didn’t know anything about the reproductive system-I was only 13. So he couldn’t get me pregnant and I believed him. And that was his intention, all along, to get me pregnant. Cause I asked him once, when I was complaining that I was all fat and my feet were all swollen, I’m like, “You probably knew you could get pregnant. you probably just wanted to trick me so I’d get pregnant.” and he got big smile and was like, “well, what if I did?” and I was like, “Oh my god” I wasn’t expecting that at all. I was thinking he’d say something like, “It was an accident” or “I’m just as surprised as you are.”