ISIS fighters reportedly give their sex slaves birth control

Birth control pills
(Image credit: iStock/Getty Images)

Islamic State fighters issue birth control to their sex slaves — sometimes two or three different kinds at once — The New York Times reports. An ISIS law dictates that enslaved women can only be raped if they aren't carrying children.

One 16-year-old girl described being given oral contraception by her owner.

"Every day, I had to swallow one in front of him. He gave me one box per month. When I ran out, he replaced it," she said. "When I was sold from one man to another, the box of pills came with me."

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Among more than 700 rape victims treated by one gynecologist at a United Nations-backed clinic, there was only a 5 percent pregnancy rate, which professionals consider unusually low.

Read the Times' full report here.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.