The control of reproduction is at the heart on the sociopolitical. Organization discussion on the decriminalization of the practice of interruption of voluntary pregnancy in Brazil

Abstract

This article proposes a brief political history about the loss of control over reproduction
by women, a historical event that, as will be seen, occupies the center of the political
organization of the Modern State and capitalism, according to the thought of the Marxist
feminist Silvia Federici. Therefore, the conquest of the right to termination of pregnancy
by women is not just a women’s right to individual freedom, synthesized by the slogans of a
certain aspect of the feminist movement as “my body, my rules”. However, this is one of the
issues that occupy the heart of politics. The fact that, in Brazil, the issue still faces so many difficulties to move forward, although the social cost of performing unsafe abortions –
self-harm, serious injuries, deaths and criminalization, especially of poor women – is
greater than the benefits that are intended to be achieved with the criminalization of this
conduct, it denotes the deep rooting, in the Brazilian social structure, of authoritarian
patriarchalism, in which State and capitalism cooperate intertwining and maintaining
social, gender and race inequalities.