Résumé : In Brazil, legal abortions were restricted to saving a woman's life and pregnancy following a rape. Illegal abortions have been estimated at 300,000 to 3 million annually. In this study, 2048 cases appearing at two Forteleza maternity hospitals during October 1992 and September 1993 were analyzed. Findings were that 59.7% of women were aged 20-29 years and 22.6% were under 20 years of age. 4.3% were illiterate and 73.2% had primary schooling. 91.6% were Catholic. 61.5% lived alone or were in an unstable union. 34.0% were housewives. 10% were students. 34% of women had no prior live births. 33.1% had had 2-4 live births, and 7.7% had had 5 or more births. 22.2% had had a prior abortion, and 11.8% had had a previous spontaneous abortion. 61.1% used no contraception. 12.3% used the pill and 1.7% used injections. 5.3% used condoms. 11.2% used rhythm and 6.4% used withdrawal. 2.1% reported use of the diaphragm, spermicide, or breast feeding. 66% of the women had used misoprostol, a frequent abortifacient available from pharmacies and a treatment for gastric and duodenal ulcers. 34% had tried to induce abortion with herbal medications, intramuscular injections, or insertion of foreign objects. 17 women were more than 28 weeks pregnant. The proportion of induced abortions appearing in these two hospitals (48%) was similar to a study in Rio de Janeiro (50%). A study in 1991 in Fortaleza found only 31% of hospital cases due to induced abortion. Brazil appeared to be the only country where misoprostol was used for illegal abortion. The reasons for not using contraception included carelessness or lack of consideration of risk (32.1%), unexpected intercourse (18.3%), fear of side effects (22.2%), and unavailability of contraception (8%).
Notes : Inglés/anglais/English, nbsp;Abstract : Popline (http://db.jhuccp.org/popinform/basic.html) - PIP 100715