Misoprostol on trial: a descriptive study of the criminalization of an essential medicine in Brazil

Misoprostol is a medicine with a "double" social life recorded in several places, including Brazil. Within formal and authorized health facilities, it is an essential medicine, used for life-saving obstetric procedures. On the streets, or in online informal markets, misoprostol is treated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cadernos de saúde pública 2021-01, Vol.37 (10), p.e00272520-e00272520
Main Author: Assis, Mariana Prandini
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortifacient Agents, Nonsteroidal
Abortion, Criminal
Abortion, Induced
Brazil
Control
Female
Humans
Jurisprudence
Misoprostol
Pregnancy
PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
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Summary:Misoprostol is a medicine with a "double" social life recorded in several places, including Brazil. Within formal and authorized health facilities, it is an essential medicine, used for life-saving obstetric procedures. On the streets, or in online informal markets, misoprostol is treated as a dangerous drug used to induce illegal abortions. In the Brazilian case, despite a rich anthropological and public health analysis of the social consequences of misoprostol's double life, there are no studies on the legal implications. This article offers such descriptive analysis, presenting and examining a comprehensive dataset of how Brazilian courts have treated misoprostol in the past three decades. It consists of an encompassing mapping of the "when, where, how, and who" of misoprostol criminalization in Brazil, pointing to the unjust consequences of the use of criminal law for the purpose of protecting public health.
ISSN:0102-311X
1678-4464
1678-4464
DOI:10.1590/0102-311X00272520