Though certifiable evidence of companies requesting proof of sterilization may be scant, the Sao Paulo City Council considered the problem serious enough to pass an ordinance banning the practice earlier this year. A similar bill has been offered at the national level in the Senate. In a strict sense, such legislation is unnecessary and redundant. Tubal ligations can only be performed legally for medical reasons, after an arduous approval process. Yet these laws, like many others in Brazil, are not enforced.
Tubal ligation is readily available to women throughout Brazil.
Many such operations are even performed in public institutions, according to both national statistics and an investigation by the Rio de Janeiro State Assembly. In fact, tubal ligation is the country's most popular method of birth control. Oral contraceptives took second place, as the chosen method for 41 percent. In March 1991, Health Minister Laeeni Guerra suggested that the number may actually be three times that. The data uncovered so far has raised the ire of many Brazilians.