In Rio de Janeiro, the experiences of women seeking abortion services are as varied as its diverse culture. In the Complexo da Mare, one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in the city, women without other options resort to homes remedies ranging from ineffective to dangerous — one teenage girl described drinking “newspaper tea” to induce an abortion.
“You get the dirtiest newspapers, boil them in a pan of water and drink it,” she said. “Sometimes you just vomit, but sometimes you get lucky.”
Experiences are vastly different for richer women. Twenty-nine-year-old Carmen sought out a clinic in a respectable area that was recommended to her by word of mouth.
“Everybody knows where these clinics are,” she said. “You phone up, ask for an appointment, then hand over the money. The later in pregnancy you are, the more you pay.”
But even wealthy women run the risk of damaging their health or losing their lives.
“If anything goes wrong, they don’t want to know,” Carmen said. “The doctors are just as afraid of the law as you are.”