Responsabilidade civil decorrente de violência obstétrica

Abstract

The circunstances surrounding childbirth and obstetric care are not safe from the problems of violence against women, because it reflects the society in which it is inserted. Therefore, it was denominated obstetric violence the mistreatment, disrespect, dehumanized service and medicalization abuse, towards women in health care services. Such violence distinguishes itself by power exercise while controlling pregnant, parturients or puerperal womens bodies through the authority of medical knowledge, which causes to these women their autonomy and ability to decide on their bodies and reproductive process loss. The consequence is the victims fundamental rights disrespect, which negatively affects their lives qualities and birth experiences. However, despite that problematic situation and the efforts of the childbirth humanization movement to stop it, the national legal system does not present a specific legislation focused on the theme. Faced with this context, this study aims to appraise how civil liability can be applied as a women’s rights safeguarding instrument, considering the rights harmed during obstetric violence. For this purpose, the methodological procedures of bibliographic research and document analysis were used in addition to one another. It was sought to comprehend the various aspects of this violence and its implications in the rules of civil liability; then, it was sought to observe the empirical judicial treatment given to these cases, when it was delimited the examination of Alagoas Court of Justice decisions, the main organ of the local Judiciary branch. Finally, in order to provide to the legal operators support for a better framing on the subject of obstetric violence, it was presented a doctrinal proposition of a judicial interpretation that should be given to gender-based violence cases, such as the studied one.