With Maria Riveros and her daughter in mind, I continued my vacation, flying to Rio de Janeiro and soon enjoying an evening performance of Brazilian dance, from samba to capoeira.
Brazilians are sometimes called the world’s most joyous people, and that infectious joy was evident in the dancers’ smiles and energy in glamorous and scanty carnival costume.
But my Lonely Planet guidebook informed me that there is another side to that abundant and joyful sexuality: “Nearly one in two women of child-bearing age has been sterilized in Brazil… Although abortions are illegal in Brazil—except in cases of rape and maternal health risks—an estimated 1 million are performed each year (often with substantial health risks)” p. 54.
Looking at the young beautiful dancers, I wondered which of them had chosen sterilization or at-home abortion in order to continue their profession without interruption. Birth control pills are available over the counter in Brazil to those who can afford them, but there is a high rate of contraceptive failure.
The World Facts Index reports 64 million Brazilian women of ages 15-64 out of a population of about 190 million. If say 50 million are of child-bearing age but half are sterilized, that would mean one million abortions per year among 25 million women—for fertile women, a 1/25 chance each year of undergoing a risky, unsanitary abortion.
As a result, Brazil has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America, about 141 deaths per 1,000 births, as compared to eight per 1,000 in the United States--such sadness underlying the ebullient sexuality of Brazil.
Toward the end of the show, the MC asked which countries were represented in the audience and then sang a favorite song from each country, ending with the entire cast dancing and singing.“Brasil, Brasil…”
International friendliness and national pride were everywhere, but I heard a sober undertone of the price women pay for managing their fertility.
# # #
See also:
Report: Global Gag Rule Spurring Deaths, Disease (Women’s eNews, Sept. 25, 2003)
http://www.guttmacher.org/
http://www.womenonwaves.org/
http://worldfacts.us.brazil.htm/
http://countrystudies.us/brazil
No comments:
Post a Comment