Medindo a saúde reprodutiva segundo o tipo de união na América Latina: indicadores sintéticos para Brasil e México

Abstract

In Latin America, until recently, it was recognized two types of union: formal marriage and consensual union, the latter being traditionally more prevalent among socio-economically disadvantaged groups. However, currently co-exist in the region a certain type of union similar to the so-called cohabitation, which is a common pattern in the context of the Second Demographic Transition, although they remain labeled as consensual unions in Latin American statistics.This Masters thesis assesses the status of the types of union with regard to health and reproductive rights, using two Latin American countries: Brazil and Mexico. The central hypothesis assumes that women in consensual union would not be always at a disadvantage compared to formally married women. Those who are closer to the pattern of cohabitation would have better access to reproductive health and be able to demand respect for reproductive rights. It is used as a reference the indicators proposed at the International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals: maternal health, adolescent fertility, contraceptive prevalence and unmet demand for family planning. First, we make a statistical description of the profile of women in each type of union and a description of the reproductive health indicators, with data of national demographic and health surveys conducted in 2006 and 2009 for Brazil and Mexico, respectively. It is also proposed a synthetic indicator to facilitate comparison between countries. We chose to select according to womens educational level in order to control the socio-economic effects on access to reproductive health. The results suggest that education is the main factor to determine differences in access to reproductive health. However, among more educated women, those who are in consensual unions seem to fit in the profile of women who belong to the Second Demographic Transition, showing a profile of relatively better access to reproductive health and greater ability to demand respect to reproductive rights.