Young men and abortion: the male perspective on unplanned pregnancies

This is a social-anthropological study that situates abortion as an event inscribed within the broader framework of heterosexual sexuality, gender relationships, contraceptive and reproductive control. Its objective was to reveal the network of social relationships that engender negotiation and decision-making processes surrounding the interruption of unplanned pregnancies and the manners of carrying out abortions based on narratives on the affective-sexual, contraceptive and reproductive trajectories of women and men from different social classes and generations. The focus of this article is young men's position in the face of pregnancy and abortion. We adopt a relational gender perspective in order to analyze the phenomenon. The empirical material comprises 13 in-depth interviews with lower- and middle-class men aged between 18 and 27 years living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The complexity of the power relations established between the couple, their family members and friends engenders different possible outcomes with regard to male participation in the event: after-the-fact awareness of the abortion, due to not having been consulted; consensual participation in pregnancy and abortion-related decision-making; disagreement between the couple, with the woman's decision prevailing over the man's objections; the woman's decision being coerced by her partner. Male participation in the sphere of reproduction and abortion is a gap in the scientific literature that must be confronted. To take on the tension that abortion creates between genders, between female reproductive autonomy and male responsibility, is a central task for those who research the subject in the social sciences and health fields.