THE ALYNE PIMENTEL CASE: OBSTETRIC VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL THROUGH INTERSECTIONAL LENSES AND FROM THE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH

Abstract

The article analyses the Alyne Pimentel case and investigates how obstetric violence in Brazil reflects and intensifies gender –, race –, and class-based inequalities from an intersectional perspective. In a complementary move, it presents the decolonial critiques of hegemonic white feminism developed by community feminism. The central objective is to understand how these forms of oppression intertwine in the experience of childbirth and to assess the limits and possibilities of the justice system in confronting a phenomenon that deprives women of autonomy over their own bodies. To that end, the study adopts a qualitative methodology based on documentary and theoretical analysis, juxtaposing national and international normative frameworks with findings from consolidated empirical research on obstetric care practices in the country. The theoretical framework mobilizes Black feminist authors and references from community feminist thought that emerge in the Latin American, Global South context to elucidate the reinforcement of subordination and extractive practices upon the body-territory of Indigenous women. The results indicate that obstetric violence is selectively distributed, more intensely affecting women in situations of social vulnerability, and that judicial responses – though they exist – tend not to consistently incorporate the markers of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and worldviews/cosmovision. It concludes that addressing obstetric violence demands a juridical and institutional paradigm shift, requiring the adoption of intersectional approaches aligned with international standards.