Statistics show the eye-opening aftermath of domestic violence against women

Donate your car in Cincinnati to help women recovering from intimate partner violence

Twenty-five percent. That’s the number of US women who will experience domestic violence during their lifetime. And every year, one in three women who is a victim of homicide is murdered by her current or former partner. The abuse that women suffer isn’t from strangers, but intimate and trusted partners.

Physical health impacts

The most common physical health issues that affected women due to abuse from an intimate partner were:

• Death and injury: According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the US have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. What’s more, 29 percent of all women who were victims of homicide were murdered by their intimate partners.
• Sexually transmitted diseases: Women who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their intimate partners were also much more likely to acquire STD’s such as syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea.
• Low birth-weight babies: Additionally, pregnant women who are abused by a domestic partner can have a much higher chance (up to 15 percent) of delivering a baby with low birth weight.

Mental health challenges

The damage that women can suffer from violence isn’t just physical, as one report showed that there can be significant mental damage as well. Some of the mental symptoms of abuse included:

• Depression: Women who were victims of abuse from an intimate partner were found to be almost twice as likely to suffer from depression in comparison to women who were not victims of abuse.
• Alcohol abuse: Women experiencing intimate partner violence are almost twice as likely as other women to have alcohol-use problems.

If a gun enters into the mix, the statistics become even more frightening. In cases of domestic abuse, if the abuser has access to a firearm, the woman’s chances of dying increase by 500 percent. In fact, women in America are 11 times more likely to be killed with a firearm than women any other developed, democratic country.

It doesn’t stop there. In the United States, between 2001 and 2012, a total of 6,410 women were shot and killed by an intimate partner. That’s more than the total number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

Please, if you know of someone who is being beaten, stalked, or otherwise abused (mentally or physically), call the National Domestic Violence Hotline and report it immediately.

Donate a vehicle in Cincinnati to help

At Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio, we have emergency shelters and support groups to help women escape and recover from domestic violence.

To help us fund these programs, you can donate a vehicle, from RVs to motorcycles, to Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio in Cincinnati. We’ll take almost anything with a motor, even if it doesn’t run. We can arrange free same-day towing, and you might even get more money for your vehicle as a deductible donation on your tax return than you would selling it on your own!

Remember, if you can donate to Volunteers of America, you can help victims of abuse in all of the Ohio counties we serve.

If you plan on donating a vehicle, please fill out the car donation form. If you have any questions, contact the Car Donation & Auction Office at 614-870-7511.