O que falam os livros didáticos de ciências da natureza do Programa Nacional do Livro Didático - 2021 sobre o aborto?

Abstract

What and how abortion is discussed in the disciplinary components of the Natural Sciences area in the didactic collections intended for High School approved by PNLD 2021? This was the guiding question for the Undergraduate Dissertation completed in the Biological Sciences Major at the Federal University of Uberlândia. The objectives outlined were: general - to analyze the sayings about abortion present in the High School biology curriculum from didactic collections approved by the PNLD 2021; and, the specific ones: (i) to identify sayings and omissions about abortion in the books analyzed, (ii) describe how abortion is presented on written texts and images from biology textbooks. The theoretical contribution of this research is based on Cultural Studies and its dialogue with critical and post-critical theoretical-epistemological fields, as well as with some precepts of gender and education Foucauldian theories. This research has a qualitative approach that made use of Cultural Analysis, as well as documental analysis. Thus, textbooks were taken as a cultural artifact, social device, and document. We selected 7 textbooks from Natural Sciences subject (High School), approved by the PNLD 2021. The discussion on abortion is mostly located in the biology subject, presented in the biomedical perspective, linked to the themes of pregnancy, STIs, contraceptive methods, hormones, and sexual human reproduction, strongly built on binary and heterosexual norm. On the other hand, we are faced with some ruptures in specific places of certain books - those that present abortion as a public health problem, are located exclusively in complementary texts of the teacher's textbook. Of the 7 books analyzed, 4 address the topic, while 3 books do not mention the word abortion at any time. We find that pregnancy is the material basis for the interweaving of abortion, in which (4) textbooks may portray abortion in quite different ways, while others are silent about it. We conclude that those which are silent, still talk about abortion. They deny the discussion and thus avoid a central discussion for the debate of youth, women, and children. But they can constitute important reference spaces for fights against counterinformation and dissemination of exclusionary and violent behavior.