Objeção de consciência em casos de aborto legal: percepção dos profissionais de saúde

Abstract

Introduction: One of the main barriers to women's access to legal abortion in Brazil today is the lack of health professionals who are willing to perform the procedure. Conscientious objection is a normative device of Ethics Codes that validates a professional's decision not to perform certain procedures. However, there are cases where conscientious objection may interfere directly with the fundamental right of another person, such as a woman's access to legal abortion. Objective: To identify the motivational elements for use of conscientious objection to legal abortion by physicians and nurses in a public maternity. Methods: A cross-sectional study, based on a semi structured questionnaire, including personal and opinion-related data applied to the professionals in service at a public maternity in Salvador-BA. Data analysis was divided in quantitative, by traditional methods, and qualitative, using content analysis in the thematic modality and classification by meanings. Results: A total of 33 professionals were interviewed, of whom 14 were physicians and 19 were nurses. The knowledge about legal abortion demonstrated by the interviewees was unsatisfactory. Only 18.18% were able to cite the three cases in which abortion is permitted in Brazil, 36.36% knew that the women don’t need to present any judicial document to access legal abortion and only 9.09% knew the meaning of conscientious objection. The percentage of professionals who would use conscientious objection varied depending on the reason for the abortion, and the percentage of physicians who performed legal abortion in cases of rape was the smallest (28.57%). The professionals’ motivations for using conscientious objection were 1) religion, 2) lack of technical qualification, 3) personal opinion against abortion and 4) desire to preserve a so-called life time of the anencephalic fetus. Conclusions: The lack of information among the professionals and the insufficient justifications given to use conscientious objection are barriers to legal abortion access in Brazil.