Abortion and a life story: Taking care of yourself, children and partners in circulation

Abstract

This article discusses the practice of abortion in a popular context as a strategy of
caring for oneself, by analyzing the life story of Helena, a working class woman whose trajectory is marked by gender violence and social inequality. It deals with the understanding and practices of sexual and reproductive life events, such as “menses”, “provoking menstruation”, “abortion”, “having children” and “having a partner”, in order to understand the management undertaken at the intersection of hegemonic codes, daily practices, and modes of surviving solitude and violence.