Profile of Female Sterilization in Brazil

Abstract

(1) Background: This study analyzes the profile of female sterilization in Brazil by age, parity, type of delivery, place of delivery, color/race, region of residence, years of schooling, marital status, number of unions, and desired number of children reported by women; (2) Methods: The descriptive analysis is based on the most recent Brazilian database on reproductive health: the 2006 Brazilian National Survey on Demography and Health of Women and Children (PNDS). This dataset has information on the history of pregnancies with live births from January 2001 to July 2007; (3) Results: The study suggests that (a) women with high levels of sterilization, high percentages of more than one pregnancy in the period, and larger parity than the desired number of children tend to have high parity, be black, brown, or indigenous, reside in the North or Northeast, have low levels of education, and have two or more unions; and (b) women with high levels of sterilization, low percentages of more than one pregnancy in the period, and lower parity than the desired number of children tend to have cesarean sections, give birth utilizing private health care obtained through a private insurance plan or direct out-of-pocket payment at private hospitals, and be married. (4) Conclusions: The 1997 family planning law could be altered in order to allow female sterilization in conjunction with childbirth, as a way to attend the demand of Brazilian women in public hospitals. Policies are necessary not only to regulate the public sector, but also to aim better services at private institutions. Female sterilization should be discussed in the context of fertility below the replacement level, as one of its associated factors.

From preventive eugenics to slippery eugenics: Population control and contemporary sterilisations targeted to indigenous peoples in Mexico

“…Similarly, in lieu of an official policy for sterilisation in Argentina and Brazil, the popularisation of biotypology and endocrinology ‘converged in some clinical settings to offer a scientific rationale for extralegal sterilizations of women who were labelled dysgenic and unlikely to produce robust children’ (Stern, 2016 , p. 12). In Brazil, the 1997 family planning law had a goal to enable sterilisation in public hospitals (Amaral, 2019 , p. 2). Here, cases of forced sterilisation, denial of services and requiring the partner’s consent for procedures denied fertile bodies the right to choose (Almeida & Silva, 2019 ; Edu, 2015 , 2018 ).…”

When Doctors Don't Tie: Hierarchical Medicalization, Reproduction, and Sterilization in Brazil

“…Sterilization is often treated as a public health concern. For example, a RAND Corporation working paper characterized the likelihood for sterilization as “risk” for sterilization (Amaral ). Arguably, sterilization is not always the best method for women given changing dynamics of sexual liaisons, relationship patterns, and the possibility for future childbearing, as well as the history of the coercive and abusive use of sterilization.…”