POSTPONED MATERNITY: VOICES OF WOMEN WHO DECIDE TO ABORT IN ECUADOR

Abstract

Introduction: Voluntary abortion is a topic in constant debate because it invades the public and parliamentary spheres, bringing with it discussions that go towards the political and ethical, for Ecuador it becomes relevant due to the restrictions derived from the norms that regulate the procedure. In this sense, it is important to make motherhood visible from the perspective of the women who decided to terminate the pregnancy, in a social context that shows contrary edges to what it has been culturally believed to be a mother. Objective: Understand the way motherhood is understood from the trajectories of women who have decided to abort in Ecuador. Methods: Narrative biographical study in which 19 women of legal age who decided to abort at some point in their lives participated. The sample was made up of 19 women between 18 and 62 years old. The information was collected through in-depth interviews, mostly virtual. Bertaux's proposal was used for data treatment and analysis. Endorsement was obtained from the Ethics Committee. Results: The being and duty to be as mothers confronts women with tensions between a positive and satisfactory motherhood and another as dispossession of themselves. Trends that are not necessarily exclusive emerge, which take the form of sacrificial, omnipotent, burdensome, imperfect and/or bad motherhoods. Conclusions: The meaning that motherhood has for women is fundamental in their decision to abort, to the extent that its social and cultural mandates become additional pressure to the sanction and criminalization of their decision to abort. This requires proposing a perspective of sexual and reproductive health rights that allows nurses, and other health actors, to recognize these complexities and tensions to assume their care task from a guarantee perspective, placing women at the center.