My body, my rules: women’s struggle for access to public health services for the accomplishment of safe abortion

Abstract

Human rights are linked to the struggle for human dignity, a context in which feminisms, social movements of struggle to overcome gender, race, and class inequalities must be linked to the struggle of other oppressed groups. The Brazilian Penal Code criminalizes abortion, except when the pregnancy results from rape, when there is a risk of death for the pregnant woman, or in case of pregnancy of an anencephalic fetus.
Despite the ban, abortion continues being carried out in all social and racial groups, and in all schooling levels and religions, being one of the biggest public health problems in the Country. The struggle for the right of access to safe abortion is made daily even when it comes to legal abortion, – which is already a right recognized and affirmed by the State. Besides the insufficiency of the health services that perform the procedure, there is no investment in technical capacity, conscientious objection often occurs, and stigmas and prejudices surround the issue, contaminating even the legal norm produced by a secular State.