Situation: A nurse works in a private lying-in clinic that offers prenatal care, normal births, postpartum care, and family planning services. At a prenatal visit, a woman at 20 weeks' gestation describes her husband's behavior. Under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (RA 9262), which behavior is classified as economic abuse?

RA 9262 defines economic abuse as acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent, including controlling her own money or solely controlling the conjugal money. Taking her salary and deciding alone how it is spent is such control. Public ridicule, repeated verbal abuse, and stalking are psychological violence, even when the behavior concerns money or shopping.

Understanding RA 9262 and Economic Abuse

The Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (RA 9262) recognizes several distinct forms of abuse: physical, sexual, psychological, and economic. Economic abuse is specifically defined as acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent. This includes controlling her own money or property, or solely controlling the conjugal or common money or properties. The correct answer is option 2 because taking the woman's entire salary each payday and deciding alone how it is spent directly removes her financial autonomy and forces dependence on the husband.

Economic abuse is not about the presence or absence of money, but about control over financial resources and decision-making. When a husband takes his wife's salary and decides unilaterally how it will be used, he is exercising sole control over conjugal finances and preventing her from acquiring, using, or maintaining her own economic resources. This aligns with the definition used in the scoping review by Chatterji et al., which describes economic abuse as behaviors that impact an individual's ability to acquire, use, or maintain economic resources, threatening their financial security and well-being ^[2].

Why the Other Options Are Psychological Violence

Options 1, 3, and 4 all involve behaviors that cause mental or emotional suffering, which RA 9262 classifies as psychological violence rather than economic abuse.

Option	Behavior	Classification under RA 9262	Reason
1	Mocking her in front of neighbors for spending on prenatal vitamins	Psychological violence	Public ridicule or humiliation causes emotional distress; the focus is on shaming, not on controlling money itself
3	Calling her lazy and useless each time she asks for check-up money	Psychological violence	Repeated verbal abuse and insults are intended to demean and intimidate, even though the trigger involves money
4	Following her to the market to see whom she talks to and what she buys	Psychological violence (stalking/surveillance)	Monitoring movements and social contacts is a form of coercive control and intimidation, not direct financial control

A key distinction is that economic abuse involves direct interference with financial resources or economic decision-making. Psychological violence, on the other hand, involves acts that cause mental or emotional suffering, such as ridicule, verbal abuse, harassment, or stalking. Even when psychological violence occurs in a context related to money—such as mocking someone for spending or following them while shopping—it remains psychological if the primary mechanism of harm is emotional distress rather than financial control.

Watch out! Do not assume that any behavior involving money is automatically economic abuse. The legal classification depends on the mechanism of harm: direct control over financial resources versus emotional or psychological intimidation.

Clinical and Public Health Context

Research from the Philippines highlights that socio-economic inequalities render women vulnerable to control and risk of abuse, and economic abuse often coexists with other forms of intimate partner violence . In a prenatal setting, a woman at 20 weeks' gestation may be particularly dependent on her partner for financial support, which can increase her vulnerability to economic control. The Swedish national survey found that motherhood significantly increases the risk of exposure to economic abuse, suggesting that pregnancy and the postpartum period are high-risk windows .

For nursing practice, this means that prenatal visits are an important opportunity for screening. A woman who reports that her salary is taken and controlled by her partner is describing a clear form of economic abuse under RA 9262. The nurse should document the disclosure, assess for safety and other forms of abuse, provide information about legal remedies and support services, and make appropriate referrals. Economic abuse is a distinct form of intimate partner violence that requires specific assessment questions—asking only about physical violence will miss many cases ^[2].

Key point! Economic abuse under RA 9262 is defined by financial control and forced dependence, not by the amount of money involved or by verbal conflicts about spending. Taking a woman's salary and deciding alone how it is spent is a textbook example of this form of abuse.