Reproduction rights, health policies and gender

Abstract

This article deals with the debate about the reproduction rights in the Brazilian society, its peculiarities, advances and contradictions when facing three present problems of the Brazilian women: feminine sterilization, illegal practice of abortion and the development of new conceptive technologies. It also highlights that the generalized practice of feminine sterilization, the high incidence of illegal abortions in Brazil and the recent development of the New Contraceptive Technology, that put their lives at risk, show that there are no policies for reproductive health and demographic control in the country. The many paths that this debate created in the last decade are discussed when there is the necessity of redeeming the historic compromise of demographic and interventionist health policies.