En-Gender! Volume 8

How can public policies on women's health in Brazil be effective in protecting the reproductive health of women and adolescents? In Brazil, the rate of teenage pregnancy and maternal death is far above the global average. Every day, approximately 930 girls become mothers, and the issue of race is also highlighted. In 2020, out of the total live births from Indigenous mothers, 28.2% were from adolescent mothers, and among births of black women, 13% were from adolescent mothers. It is also an intersectionality issue that enforces reproductive injustice in Brazil. Even in Brazil, 107.53 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births. One of the main causes of maternal death is hemorrhage, followed by unsafe abortion and puerperal infection. Regarding Brazil, it is possible to infer that the lack or ineffectiveness of public policies for female sexual and reproductive health results in high rates of teenage pregnancy and maternal deaths, which stem from misinformation, socioeconomic inequalities, and the lack of responsibility and solidarity of state apparatuses that are meant to offer protection to citizens. This could represent a form of necropolitics targeting women, particularly Black and Indigenous women. Therefore, the importance of a critical debate that seeks to highlight the ineffectiveness of such policies for the protection of life and overcoming social and gender inequalities in Brazil, which we call reproductive injustice, is evident.