Women victims of sexual violence: critical paths in the search for the right to legal abortion

Abstract

Legal abortion in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape has been provided for in Brazil since 1940. However, access to this right is still very restricted, and there are numerous barriers that hinder women’s access to referral services that perform the procedure. This article discusses the trajectory of women who had an abortion due to rape from 2000 to 2018 at a public referral hospital in the city of Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil). This is a qualitative, documentary, and retrospective study that used the concept of Critical Paths to understand the difficulties encountered by the women, the decisions made in the face of sexual violence and the discovery of pregnancy, as well as, the consequences resulting from this situation. Data were collected from women’s medical records, totaling 127 cases. Based on the content analysis, three interrelated categories were identified and subsequently ordered to explain the sequence of facts, actions, and complications in women’s lives, according to the dynamics of the critical paths produced: Between the secrecy of violence and the silencing of rights; Psychological illness and social disorganization; Institutional flows: validation of the word and conscientious objection. We noticed that there is a silencing in the face of sexual violence, and the performance of legal abortion proved to be an invisible problem surrounded by stigmas. The psychosocial disorganization resulting from violence was aggravated by misinformation, the precariousness of the service networks, and the professionals’ conscientious objection.