Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Interview with Juley Fulcher

Aired April 23, 2003 - 15:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Most pregnant women worry far more about health risks than whether their life is at risk. But studies in Maryland and Massachusetts found that homicide was the cause of more pregnancy related deaths than any single medical cause. And a few other studies in other states reached similar conclusions that many pregnant women who die are being murdered.
I'm joined by Juley Fulcher of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

You are not saying these are national statistics. I just want to be clear. This are studies in a few states, several states?

JULEY FULCHER, NATL. COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: That's correct. The studies that have been done have been done in a couple of large metropolitan areas, but we don't have figures nation wide.

WOODRUFF: What are these studies showing. Primarily younger pregnant women the most vulnerable?

FULCHER: Yes. One of the studies it did identify that younger pregnant women were experiencing the most violence, although that's true generally of domestic violence where we see that women between 16 and 24 experience the most domestic violence. But the studies were also looking at sort of just broadly the issue of pregnancy.

WOODRUFF: What are you finding in terms of the motivation, when that can be known, what are you learning about that?

FULCHER: Well, I think it's important for us to understand that domestic violence is about power and control. It's about one person trying to control another. They use a multitude of tactics, including violence, including emotional abuse, economic abuse, threats, coercion, and that when a batterer feels like they are getting out of control, they may increase the tactics, including the violence, in order to regain control. It may be the situation that in the case of pregnancy, there is more of a feeling of being sort of out of control of the situation, the family, their life generally.

WOODRUFF: Their because they are expanding their numbers.

How well prepared is our country right now to deal with this?

FULCHER: Well, in general, I think that we are doing much better at addressing domestic violence than certainly we have in the past. But it is a progress, a progression that we see changes over time. We hope it's going to get better and better. It's still the case that 1 out of 3 women in the United States will probably experience violence from an intimate partner some time in her lifetime. So we've got a long way to go before we are really effectively stopping domestic violence in our society.

WOODRUFF: If you could get one message out there about this, what would you say?

FULCHER: I think we just need to understand that domestic violence is far more prevalent than most of us realize, that it does happen to our friends and our neighbors and our family members. And that it's our responsibility to educate ourselves about domestic violence, and make sure that we are responsive to the problem when it exists in our communities.

WOODRUFF: And the timing on this, did it have anything to do with all the publicity over the death of Laci Peterson?

FULCHER: The studies that were done, that had so far been released are about a year old. So the publicity around it certainly there's been a lot more in the past week or two. And there are continuing studies being done to get more nationwide statistics. But the studies that we're talking about are a little bit old now.

WOODRUFF: Well, something we all need to pay attention to whether it's a study this year or last year. Juley Fulcher with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, thank you very much for talking with us.

FULCHER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 23, 2003 - 15:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Most pregnant women worry far more about health risks than whether their life is at risk. But studies in Maryland and Massachusetts found that homicide was the cause of more pregnancy related deaths than any single medical cause. And a few other studies in other states reached similar conclusions that many pregnant women who die are being murdered.
I'm joined by Juley Fulcher of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

You are not saying these are national statistics. I just want to be clear. This are studies in a few states, several states?

JULEY FULCHER, NATL. COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: That's correct. The studies that have been done have been done in a couple of large metropolitan areas, but we don't have figures nation wide.

WOODRUFF: What are these studies showing. Primarily younger pregnant women the most vulnerable?

FULCHER: Yes. One of the studies it did identify that younger pregnant women were experiencing the most violence, although that's true generally of domestic violence where we see that women between 16 and 24 experience the most domestic violence. But the studies were also looking at sort of just broadly the issue of pregnancy.

WOODRUFF: What are you finding in terms of the motivation, when that can be known, what are you learning about that?

FULCHER: Well, I think it's important for us to understand that domestic violence is about power and control. It's about one person trying to control another. They use a multitude of tactics, including violence, including emotional abuse, economic abuse, threats, coercion, and that when a batterer feels like they are getting out of control, they may increase the tactics, including the violence, in order to regain control. It may be the situation that in the case of pregnancy, there is more of a feeling of being sort of out of control of the situation, the family, their life generally.

WOODRUFF: Their because they are expanding their numbers.

How well prepared is our country right now to deal with this?

FULCHER: Well, in general, I think that we are doing much better at addressing domestic violence than certainly we have in the past. But it is a progress, a progression that we see changes over time. We hope it's going to get better and better. It's still the case that 1 out of 3 women in the United States will probably experience violence from an intimate partner some time in her lifetime. So we've got a long way to go before we are really effectively stopping domestic violence in our society.

WOODRUFF: If you could get one message out there about this, what would you say?

FULCHER: I think we just need to understand that domestic violence is far more prevalent than most of us realize, that it does happen to our friends and our neighbors and our family members. And that it's our responsibility to educate ourselves about domestic violence, and make sure that we are responsive to the problem when it exists in our communities.

WOODRUFF: And the timing on this, did it have anything to do with all the publicity over the death of Laci Peterson?

FULCHER: The studies that were done, that had so far been released are about a year old. So the publicity around it certainly there's been a lot more in the past week or two. And there are continuing studies being done to get more nationwide statistics. But the studies that we're talking about are a little bit old now.

WOODRUFF: Well, something we all need to pay attention to whether it's a study this year or last year. Juley Fulcher with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, thank you very much for talking with us.

FULCHER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com