Abstract:
Abortion is still a public health problem in Brazil and is among the leading causes of maternal death. Socially vulnerable women have the greatest risk of death from abortion. The Brazilian Ministry of Health determined mandatory investigation of deaths of childbearing-age women with discussion of maternal deaths by Maternal Mortality Committees, aimed at identifying failures in management of cases that led to or determined the deaths. In the city of Rio de Janeiro, this structure is organized in a Municipal Committee and ten Regional Commissions for Prevention and Control of Maternal Mortality. The objective was to analyze the recommendations by the Regional Commissions on deaths from induced abortion. We carried out a descriptive study of recommendations by the Regional Commissions on deaths from induced abortion in women living in the city of Rio de Janeiro from 2011 to 2016. Case selection used the classification of the Guidelines for Epidemiological Surveillance of Maternal Death for deaths from abortion. Recommendations were classified according to two points: “recipients and content” and “performance of abortion and related factors”. The recommendations were predominantly technical and biomedical, without correlating the deaths to social, cultural, and economic issues. Taboo topics such as voluntary termination of pregnancy and search for changes in standards that would promote women’s right to health were missing. Regional Commissions exercise an important activity and are a step forward in the fight against maternal mortality, but their recommendations only contribute partially to reducing mortality from induced abortion.
Keywords:
Reproductive Rights; Maternal Mortality; Abortion; Induced Abortion
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