By using methods of the fields of History and Anthropology, this study investigated the practice of abortion in southern Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century. The examination of primary sources and interviews with elderly women intended to unveil a huge silence around this practice, which leaves very few historical sources to be investigated, and hides those memories. This text presents data collected by this survey and analyzes the diversity of representations over abortion and the ambiguities that this theme causes on the subjects involved. The practice of abortion must be understood as inserted into a context of power. The subjects operate from multiple sources of knowledge and within a morality network composed of contradictory elements.
Abortion; Contraception; Reproductive Health; Gender