Trajectory of women that performed a provoked abortion contained in the discourse of a clandestine procedure

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the trajectory of women that performed a provoked abortion related to a clandestine procedure. METHODS: This is a qualitative methodological approach through the Collective Subject Discourse obtained in a public maternity hospital in city of Salvador, state of Bahia, between July and September of 2008, with 17 women hospitalized for abortion; the research was carried out with semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: The synthesis of central ideas indicated that several players participated in the history of illegal abortion: laymen, professionals and friends of women; the abortion means ranged from the use of misoprostol to traditional and risky procedures, for example the insertion of probes. Women paid a high "price" for those procedures. CONCLUSION: The maintenance of the abortion as an illegality procedure favors gains obtained with the abortive maneuvers which results in increasing costs of health services with the complications provoked by those procedures.