ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a set of critical questions in the intersection between Zika virus and wider issues of motherhood, gender, disability and reproductive rights in Brazil. Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) related to infection by the Zika virus in pregnancy, a condition that may also occur without microcephaly due to the wide range of clinical sequella. While the Zika epidemic may have raised concerns about reproductive health issues, the government’s response, centered on household-level mosquito control and the at times bizarre statements on the need to “delay pregnancy,” show significant gaps in health policy. Grounded in the disability movement, the work of mother organizations to support children affected by CZS, physically, psychologically and legally, has been an important social response to the emerging tragedy of this new epidemic, and the social suffering brought by its devastation. Official agencies and the discourse of Zika control has tended to avoid the issue of contraception, both in terms of information and access.
