The study aimed to describe the relationship between abortion and public health in Brazil from the perspective of human rights. This is a literature review carried out in the SciELO database. It was found that the search of women for their rights endures for decades and, even reaching various achievements, such as those that occurred in women’s healthcare, other changes are still necessary, such as preventive assistance of unplanned pregnancy and the human rights of women who decide to have an abortion. The conclusion is that, because of criminalization of abortion in the country, several women perform the procedure in an unsafe way, causing damage to their own health, which constitutes a violation of human rights.
