This essay is part a larger study on the relationship between the Brazilian government and contraceptive policy and precedes a survey performed in health services in Rio de Janeiro. It is also intended to analyze what health care professionals and users think about contraception. It presents considerations by a social worker with experience in family planning activities in outlying public health care services and also provides data facilitating activities in this area. It thus touches on some elements that interfere in practical work in this field, such as academic life and social representation, in addition to submitting a written critique to PAISM (the Brazilian Ministry of Health's Program for Integrated Women's Health Care) as an official contraceptive policy.
Contraception; Contraceptive Policy; Family Planning; Women's Health