Based on the symbolic interactionist approach, we aimed to verify the meanings attributed to induced abortion by women who adopted such behavior as well as to analyze the impact of the experience on their self-image. The results point out the contradiction in women's discourse when they evaluate the experience, and the emotional negative reactions they had developed: remorse/guilty conscience, regret, feeling of grief, and mainly guilt, which, according to their accounts, they will carry for the rest of their lives.
induced abortion; women's health; reproductive health