Nancy Palomino

Although modern contraceptive use in Peru has increased, many women still face unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and abortions remain high despite the illegality of elective pregnancy termination. To improve understanding of how men and women make reproductive decisions, we conducted this study in Lima. Fifty-two 18-37 year old low- and middle-income women and men participated in in-depth interviews and focus groups. Reproductive planning constitutes a worry among participants. The paradigm of contraception, pregnancy, childbearing and pregnancy termination is complex and contained within a context of contradictory pressures toward women: while women feel the need to be autonomous in all realms of their lives, they also need to meet the traditional roles associated with sexuality and childbearing and rearing. The woman, her partner and family members take part in reproductive decisions. However, participants expressed difficulties preventing unwanted pregnancies and social stigma if they resorted to abortion or, interestingly, if they continued a pregnancy when involved in a socially undesirable personal situation. Abortion-related stigma generated fear and guilt in addition to safety concerns given the unsafe, clandestine contexts in which pregnancy termination takes place. Despite these concerns, interviewees often opted for abortion for personal reasons, which were primarily economic.

362. 82920985 GUE, Mujeres Peruanas-Condiciones Sociales y Culturales, OMS, Abuso Sexual-Perú, Violación-Perú, Violencia Doméstica-Perú, Relaciones de Pareja-Perú, Relaciones entre los Sexos, Identidad de Género-Perú, Género-Perú, Roles Sexuales, ...

Presenta una aproximación, desde la perspectiva de los propios varones, a los mecanismos que los impulsan a someter a las mujeres mediante la violencia sexual. Devela situaciones de violación sexual hacia sus parejas y otras formas de violencia sexual que los varones no reconocen como tales y que constituyen prácticas cotidianas bastante generalizadas tanto en el espacio doméstico como en espacios públicos. Según este estudio cualitativo con varones en tres ciudades del Perú, una de las principales causas de la violencia sexual contra sus parejas y mujeres que buscan ser autónomas, entre otras, sería el temor de los hombres a perder el control de la sexualidad femenina, a no poder realizarse como hombres a expensas del cuerpo de las mujeres y, como consecuencia de ello, a la feminización, la humillación y la desvalorización social. El estudio revela facetas ocultas de la condición masculina y los costos personales que generan en ellos la gestión de sus emociones. Da cuenta, también, de cómo se expresa la complicidad social frente a la violencia sexual hacia las mujeres y, a la vez, de ciertos desplazamientos en los discursos que configuran, de manera incipiente, nuevas sensibilidades que cuestionan el machismo y el ejercicio de la violencia sexual aun cuando se contradigan con prácticas que todavía se mantienen normalizadas.

Why is induced abortion common in environments in which modern contraception is readily available? This study analyses qualitative data collected from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with women and men from low-income areas in five countries – the United States, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and Mexico – to better understand how couples manage their pregnancy risk. Across all settings, women and men rarely weigh the advantages and disadvantages of contraception and abortion before beginning a sexual relationship or engaging in sexual intercourse. Contraception is viewed independently of abortion, and the two are linked only when the former is invoked as a preferred means to avoiding repeat abortion. For women, contraceptive methods are viewed as suspect because of perceived side effects, while abortion experience, often at significant personal risk to them, raises the spectre of social stigma and motivates better practice of contraception. In all settings, male partners figure importantly in pregnancy decisions and management. Although there are inherent study limitations of small sample sizes, the narratives reveal psychosocial barriers to effective contraceptive use and identify nodal points in pregnancy decision-making that can structure future investigations.

It is well recognised that unsafe abortions have significant implications for women's physical health; however, women's perceptions and experiences with abortion-related stigma and disclosure about abortion are not well understood. This paper examines the presence and intensity of abortion stigma in five countries, and seeks to understand how stigma is perceived and experienced by women who terminate an unintended pregnancy and influences her subsequent disclosure behaviours. The paper is based upon focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with women and men in Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and the United States (USA) in 2006. The stigma of abortion was perceived similarly in both legally liberal and restrictive settings although it was more evident in countries where abortion is highly restricted. Personal accounts of experienced stigma were limited, although participants cited numerous social consequences of having an abortion. Abortion-related stigma played an important role in disclosure of individual abortion behaviour.