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ARTIGO ARTICLE 25

Paism: um marco na abordagem da saúde reprodutiva no Brasil
The Program for Integrated Women’s Health
Care (PAISM): a landmark in the approach to reproductive health in Brazil

Maria José Martins Duarte Osis

1 Centro de Pesquisa das
Doenças Materno-Infantis de Campinas.
C. P. 6181, Campinas, SP
13081-970, Brasil.

1

Abstract The Program for Integrated Women’s Health Care (PAISM) was launched by the Brazilian Ministry of Health in 1983 as a new and different approach to women’s health. Paradoxically, the PAISM also became the first case in which the Brazilian state explicitly proposed and implemented (albeit partially) a program regulating fertility. This raised suspicions as to disguised promotion of birth control. However, a brief analysis of the history of this program and its social significance suggests that the PAISM was a pioneering undertaking (even within the international scenario) in proposing integrated women’s health care as opposed to isolated family planning measures. This helps explain why women’s movements in Brazil immediately began to struggle to see it properly implemented. The program contained the definition of reproductive health adopted by the World Health Organization in 1988, which was expanded and consolidated in Cairo in 1994 and Beijing in 1995. Consequently, adoption of the PAISM meant a significant step towards recognition of women’s reproductive rights, even before gaining the various international forums for struggle.
Key words Reproductive Medicine; Women’s Health; Health Policy; Birth Control
Resumo O Programa de Assistência Integral à Saúde Mulher (PAISM) foi lançado pelo Ministério da Saúde em 1983, sendo anunciado como uma nova e diferenciada abordagem da saúde da mulher. Paradoxalmente, o PAISM constitui-se também na primeira vez em que o Estado brasileiro propôs explicitamente, e implantou, embora de modo parcial, um programa que contemplava a regulação da fecundidade. Isso