The everlasting outmoded contraceptive method mix in Brazil and its legacy

In: Revista brasileira de estudos de população, Band 36, S. 1-29

Abstract

Fertility transition occurred in a short period of time in Brazilian the absence of family planning programs, and most noticeable, in a context of illegality in the provision of means of fertility selfregulation. These events did not happen without consequences. Based in the literature and facts registered during that time, the paper first discusses how the resistance to the implementation of family planning programs from the 1960s to the 1980s have contributed to the unbalanced contraceptive method mix in the 1990's. Secondly, the paper will discuss problems around contraceptive data collection in the National Health Survey, and, performing an adjustment of the data, we analyze trends in the use of contraceptive methods from 1986 to 2013, showing that method mix continues to be very concentrated in the same two methods, an even more outdated scheme, with the daily pill exchanging first place with female sterilization. Finally, the paper discusses some fertility characteristics associated with the outdated contraceptive mix, still prevailing at the end of fertility transition, arguing that this could be avoided or minimized if policies and laws are based in reproductive rights of all people only.