Comprehensive care for abortion-related situations in Primary Health Care within the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS): challenges, perspectives, and pathways

Abstract

This Editorial presents the dossier “Comprehensive care for abortion-related situations in Primary Health Care within the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS): challenges, perspectives, and pathways”. Abortions are common events in the reproductive lives of women and pregnant people, whether spontaneous or induced. In the absence or weakness of public policies and comprehensive reproductive health care approaches that address abortion situations, risks to health and life are common, becoming a serious public health problem. The centrality of Primary Health Care (PHC) in ensuring access to comprehensive abortion care has been the subject of growing debate in Brazil and worldwide, and is a WHO recommendation. The five articles comprising the dossier present multiple approaches and were developed based on dialogue between researchers and professors from various research and educational institutions, representatives of professional associations, civil society organizations, and feminist collectives from various regions of the country. By promoting a critical analysis of the challenges and potential of PHC, the works contribute to the construction of theoretical and practical frameworks guided by the principles of comprehensive care and reproductive rights, reaffirming their commitment to social and reproductive justice in the context of public health policies.