Representações sociais sobre o aborto em estudantes universitárias/os

Abstract

The research was conducted in two public institutions in the state of São Paulo, combining descriptive (quantitative) and qualitative-interpretative approaches, organized in two stages. The first stage was a screening phase (110 participants) using a virtual questionnaire, analyzed descriptively, and the Questionnaire of Values and Beliefs about Sexuality, analyzed according to the instrument's own guidelines (Sereno, Leal & Maroco, 2009). The second stage consisted of a qualitative phase, involving semi-structured interviews and the Free Word Association Test (FWAT), conducted in person with three university students who answered affirmatively to the question “have you experienced abortion.” The theoretical framework guiding the discussion of the results was the Theory of Social Representations (Moscovici, 2015; Jodelet, 2001). The results from the first stage allowed for the construction of a general profile of the participants: women, 23 years old, white, fourth-year undergraduate health students at a federal university, agnostic or without religious affiliation. Most were from the Southeast region and interior of São Paulo state. With a family income ranging from R$5,000 to R$10,000, they belonged to middle-class families, with individual incomes between R$1 and R$2,000. These data are fundamental to understanding the results from the Questionnaire of Values and Beliefs about Sexuality, which indicated that this population does not believe motherhood is a woman’s main life project; they view female pleasure as highly significant; there is a tendency to consider the idea of reproduction as a primarily female function to be outdated. They were ambiguous about whether female sexuality should necessarily be linked to emotional life, and positioned themselves as moderate regarding negative representations of abortion, neither progressive nor conservative on this issue. Also in this stage, it was observed that for some participants, pregnancy and abortion are not necessarily connected; the experience is seen as psychosocial, separating one phenomenon from the other. It is also described as a deeply traumatic experience that leads women to seek strategies to overcome and re-signify this event in their lives. In the second stage of the study, in Analytical Category 01: Abortion Experience, we highlight the presence of an important ethno-social determinant that differentiates the participants and reinforces that those who do not access health services are the ones most at risk. Additionally, the hospital was problematized as a space of care for these women, and how the illegality of abortion contributes to the challenges faced. In Analytical Category 02: Determinants and Effects of Abortion, the abortion event was addressed as a potentially traumatic experience within each individual's life context. The experiences of two participants with feelings of terror related to the pregnancy were particularly notable. It is worth remembering that, in the first stage, they reported not feeling pregnant at any point prior to the abortion. This is important for recognizing that the phenomenon of pregnancy cannot be reduced to a purely biological event. Analytical Category 03: Abortion as a Gender Issue, reveals feelings of abandonment, guilt, and the emotional burden that women mobilize to face this traumatic event, closely linked to significant gender-related issues. Finally, Analytical Category 04: Beliefs and Values about Gender/Sexuality, emphasizes how two participants sought readings and studies as a way of coping with the abortion experience.