One of the causes of these disturbances is tubal ligation. The vast majority of tubal ligations occur following caesarean births, which, said Basbaum, is the moment least indicated for the operation. Brazil, according to the World Bank, is a world leader in caesarean births. The recently concluded report of a congressional commission on sterilization denounced the pressure businesses put on their women workers, at times even demanding a document saying they have been sterilized. According to the Population Fund's Brazil representative, Pedro Vilanueva, many women later regret having been sterilized.
Many adolescents are victims, and afterwards regret being sterilized for the rest of their lives.
The Population Fund believes that the lack of sex education has damaged women's health, particularly in regards to the high level of teen-age pregnancy. At least 2 million Brazilian adolescents have already experienced pregnancy. There is no alternative other than surgical sterilization, which is a dramatic and definitive option. Integration based on neo-liberal economic policies, said the Consultation document, tends to sanctify the market and profit as the supreme value and does not consider the dramatic consequences of this economic system suffered by the poor and excluded. The church leaders appealed to their churches that their prophetic voices be heard, and that they accompany in solidarity those affected by the policies of the current economic system.