ABSTRACT
About 50 years ago, as a consequence of the introduction of the contraceptive pill, the process of separating sex from procreation began. This brought about important transformations in sexual and gender norms and behaviours. In particular, women’s sexuality became less constrained once greater control over fertility could be achieved. Within the context of these social and sexual behavioural changes, the problem of ‘teenage pregnancy’ began to emerge. While some of the most heated debate has taken place in the north (the USA, Canada and Europe), moral panic and outrage concerning teenage pregnancy has also been evident in industrialising nations such as Brazil (Le Van 1998; Bonell 2004; Breheny and Stephens 2007). These concerns play to larger anxieties about ‘adolescence’ in general and young people’s sexual behaviour in particular (Luker 1996; Schalet 2004). Growing interest in teenage pregnancy in Brazil is linked to a number of different factors. First, there is the mistaken perception that a demographic explosion is underway, which is contradicted by the fact that census data show a significant fall in Brazilian fertility rate over the last 30 years – the current rate is of 1.8 newborns per woman, which is below the population replacement level (Ministério da Saúde 2008; Berquó and Cavenaghi 2005). Second, as a result of widespread social change, sexual experience independent of marriage is no longer the privilege of young men, and the moral value of female virginity has faded. Third, there have been major changes in conceptions of age and gender, which have redefined social aspirations and the nature of youth. Young people are expected to spend ever longer periods of time in education prior to entry into the labour market, leaving the parental home and (eventual) marriage (Galland 1997). Pregnancy is disruptive because it interrupts this process. Together, these three factors have contributed towards a social pathologisation of teenage conception and pregnancy in countries such as Brazil. The data we will draw on in this chapter come from the Gravidez na Adolescência (GRAVAD) study.1 This involved interviews with 4634 young people of both sexes aged 18-24 years in three Brazilian cities (Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador) between 2001 and 2002. Findings from the study allowed us to question the reductionist and moralist frame in which teenage pregnancy is often constructed – one with stresses its supposedly abnormality and danger both for the individual(s) concerned and for society at large. The study also revealed that pregnancy in youth is a remarkable diverse phenomenon (Heilborn et al. 2006). The social valorisation of schooling and the increasing professionalisation of the workforce, together with the belief that poverty might be controlled by limiting
early childbirth together have nourished the portrayal of teenage pregnancy as a social pathology of epidemic dimensions. Brazilian public debates frequently associate teenage pregnancy with poverty and urban violence (Oliveira 2005; Heilborn et al. 2007), and they usually advocate population control to tackle all three of these problems at once.
