Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: LORENA AMORELLI REINATO

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : LORENA AMORELLI REINATO
DATE: 27/08/2026
TIME: 10:00
LOCAL: Online
TITLE:

Body and Labor in the Struggle for Abortion Rights in Brazil

KEY WORDS:

abortion; body; sexual and reproductive rights; marxism feminist.

PAGES: 85
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Psicologia
SUMMARY:

This research is grounded in the understanding of the body as a social category constituted through the
relations of production and reproduction of human life. An examination of these different historical configurations
reveals that the definition of the body has never been neutral; rather, it has always been shaped by power
struggles and class interests. Dominant discourse has assigned the body as a determining category to the
proletariat, Black people, people with disabilities, women, and colonized peoples. In doing so, it has enabled
their quantification, classification, and subjugation. Conversely, self-determination over one's own body has
remained largely restricted to the dominant classes, which exercise power and control—not merely as
individuals, but as a class—through ideological and coercive mechanisms. Within this process, fields such as
Law and Medicine, as well as institutions such as the State and the Family, play a central role. This research
project departs from approaches that conceive of the body as an abstract or merely discursive entity. Instead, it
seeks to understand the body through historically situated and socially determined relations and practices,
taking as its object of analysis the struggle for abortion rights in Brazil. Our objective is to examine how the
bodies of women and people who can become pregnant are mobilized by Capital, regulated by the State and
the family, and simultaneously produced as sites of resistance by social movements advocating for the
legalization of abortion. The epistemological and ontological framework of this study is grounded in Marxism and
Marxist feminism. Accordingly, the research is structured around three central analytical categories: totality,
mediation, and contradiction. The study is organized into five stages. First, a literature review will be conducted
to examine the historical conditions surrounding abortion in Brazil, with particular attention to the ways in which
the body, and specifically women's bodies, has been constituted within Brazilian society throughout the
development of the productive forces. Second, documentary research will analyze the advances and setbacks
in the struggle for the legalization of abortion within the Brazilian legal framework. Third, the research will map
the organizations, collectives, and social actors engaged in the struggle for abortion rights in Brazil. Fourth, oral
history will be employed as a methodological tool, together with semi-structured interviews, to engage with the
principal leaders of Brazil's movement for the legalization of abortion. Finally, the data will be analyzed through
the methodological framework of meaning cores (núcleos de significação). This research is expected to
strengthen both public and academic debates on reproductive rights and to contribute to the development of
public policies committed to gender, racial, and class equity. By highlighting the contradictions between the
body, labor, and social reproduction, as well as the forms of resistance forged by feminist movements, the study
seeks to provide theoretical and critical contributions that deepen understanding of the subjective and social
impacts of abortion criminalization.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externa à Instituição - JULES FALQUET
Interna - 1720819 - ILANA LEMOS DE PAIVA
Externa à Instituição - MIRLA CISNE ÁLVARO - UERN