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By Nadia Sussman
As Brazil copes with an ongoing outbreak of the Zika virus, women still face barriers to accessing their preferred method of birth control.
In a low-income favela in Rio de Janeiro, Laureana Souza de Oliveira is pregnant with her sixth child at 30 years old. Her eldest daughter got sick with Zika, and Laureana worries it could strike again while she’s pregnant, putting her baby at risk. She wants to undergo a tubal ligation when her baby is born, to prevent future pregnancies, but Brazilian law requires that married women have written consent from their husbands. As Laureana tries to convince her husband to agree to a permanent birth control method, she continues to work at the nearby snack shop they own, struggling to make ends meet during an economic crisis in Rio state and in Brazilas a whole.
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
