Making sense of reproductive health messages in the Global South: A case study of Brazil’s NGO Reprolatina

Abstract

How do young members of disadvantaged communities in countries like Brazil, which have been affected by attacks from far-right populist politicians on women’s rights, make sense of messages on reproductive health in the misinformation age? Two focus groups were conducted in 2021 in collaboration with the Brazilian NGO Reprolatina to assess how disadvantaged women’s groups from Campinas, Sao Paulo, were making sense of messaging on reproductive health within a highly politically polarized local context. The findings revealed also how many women from lower income groups are exposed to a lack of information, as well as even ‘myths’, around fertility treatments and reproductive health matters in the mediated public sphere. The results showed how these groups of women from different age groups felt that there is need for better coverage of reproductive health, and of ‘scientific’ information on health matters more generally, in both the mainstream media and online. This study concludes in favour of improving health literacy approaches, as well as the overall communications on sexuality and reproductive health.