Title not available in English

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy is considered a worldwide problem because, in the recent past, fertility rates among adolescents were increasing together with a decline in the overall rate. Today the world is facing a decrease in adolescents fertility rates. Nevertheless , attention to this topic has increased due to greater numbers of single mothers, thus causing serious consequences to the mothers themselves, their children, and society. In our opinion, the key problem is that, faced with a de facto pregnancy, few choices are open to the adolescent involved, due to social exclusion, among others difficulties. Therefore, they often resort to illegal abortions, which is one of the major causes of death of mothers, if not the major cause. In order to broaden the discussion of this problem, a brief speculation was carried out regarding the impact of abortion on the reproductive behavior of young Brazilian women in the ten-year period between 1990 and 2000. A mechanism of extrapolation was used for this purpose, using the TRA and based on the results obtained in two field studies. In general, the data obtained corresponds to that presented by Guzman et al., (2001), who noted a trend toward increasing willingness by adolescents in Latin America to resort to abortions. The present study has the objective of evaluating the role of abortions on the fertility behavior of Brazilian adolescents. Results from two field studies were used, extrapolated from the TRA. Our data suggest a growing trend toward abortion among adolescents in Latin America. While the number of abortions per pregnancy in women ages 20 to 24 is 38%, this number reaches nearly 50% among adolescents.