ABORTO NO BRASIL

959

Abortion in Brazil: a household survey using the ballot box technique

Debora Diniz 1
Marcelo Medeiros 2

Abstract This study presents the first results of the National Abortion Survey (PNA, Pesquisa
Nacional de Aborto), a household random sample survey fielded in 2010 covering urban women in
Brazil aged 18 to 39 years. The PNA combined two techniques, interviewer-administered questionnaires and self-administered ballot box questionnaires. The results of PNA show that at the end of their reproductive health one in five women has performed an abortion, with abortions being more frequent in the main reproductive ages, that is, from 18 to 29 years old. No relevant differentiation was observed in the practice of abortion among religious groups, but abortion was found to be more common among people with lower education. The use of medical drugs to induce abortion occurred in half of the abortions, and postabortion hospitalization was observed among approximately half of the women who aborted. Such results lead to conclude that abortion is a priority in the Brazilian public health agenda.
Key words Induced abortion, Abortion surveys,
Medical abortion, Reproductive history, Ballot box technique, Brazil
1
Anis – Instituto de
Bioética, Direitos Humanos e Gênero. Caixa Postal
8011, Setor Sudoeste.
70673-970 Brasília DF. [e-mail] 2
UnB.

Resumo O artigo apresenta os primeiros resultados da Pesquisa Nacional de Aborto (PNA), um levantamento por amostragem aleatória de domicílios, realizado em 2010, cuja cobertura abrangeu as mulheres com idades entre 18 e 39 anos em todo o Brasil urbano. A PNA combinou duas técnicas de sondagem: a técnica de urna e questionários preenchidos por entrevistadoras. Seus resultados indicam que, ao final da vida reprodutiva, mais de uma em cada cinco mulheres já fez aborto, ocorrendo os abortos em geral nas idades que compõem o centro do período reprodutivo das mulheres, isto é, entre 18 e 29 anos. Não se observou diferenciação